Devil
by Breelin
Summary: Before the Red Death, Hiccup disappears from Berk. The dragon war continues to rage on, and five years later Astrid is questioning whether to be loyal to her tribe when she knows the killing is wrong. But who is to tell her what is right and what is wrong when Hiccup returns, not only to lead the dragons, but to destroy Berk and her? Who is the enemy? Hiccstrid romance!
1. The Girl Left Alone

**A/N: Hello! The 'Hiccup-runs-away' premise has been done to death, I know, but I had this idea and I think it's a little different from the usual. The title, _Devil _comes from HTTYD1, where Stoick calls Toothless 'devil' right before they set sail for Helheim's gate. Definitely a PG kind of insult, but it got me thinking: What if Hiccup became the 'devil', too? And here, we are. I hope you enjoy!**

**Note: This chapter is a rewrite. Information-wise, nothing has changed, I just wanted to clean it up. If you have read before and noticed this, no, you are not crazy!**

* * *

When the night comes, Berk transforms. As the sun sets people start retreating indoors, and by the time the darkness settles all windows and doors are locked up tight. It wouldn't help much (it never did) but it allowed the average villager feel just a little bit safer, a little bit more in control when there was really no such thing.

Contrary to the bustling daytime, nights on Berk are completely silent. Motionless, stifled apart from a number of flickering torches that lit main roads and the paths to the outhouses—although anyone smart enough held it for the night. No one wanted to be caught in the middle of a dragon attack with their trousers around their ankles.

And like any smart villager at this time, Astrid is in her room, fully awake even after her parents have forced out the lanterns. It's been three days since the last dragon attack, which meant tonight—they were coming. There was no such thing as peace for this many days in a row, not in a long while. When the dragons came, she had to be ready to fight, not half awake and dim with the ignorance of thinking she could have gotten a full night's sleep.

Her parents were deluding themselves. The citizens of Berk had never been more stressed, but for the first time in ages their food supply wasn't. The dragons came to destroy, not steal. Years ago that wouldn't have seemed like a bad alternative during a scarce winter… but now, Astrid is grateful her house has remained standing as long as it has.

The idea that this might be her last night in this bed wasn't a foreign thought. The darkness that once felt comforting is smothering. Nights like these lead her mind into interesting places. When did it all change?

_Before._

She thought about so much, too much. Before, when dragon raids were less frequent, less brutal. Before, when life wasn't all about fighting and killing and surviving. Before, when living became all about this waiting. When she had times in between the madness to be happy.

Not that anybody on Berk was unhappy—but Astrid, sometimes she wasn't sure what to consider her existence. She'd spent her entire life learning and improving and besting everyone and everything that dared stand in her way. And now here she was, five years later, a professional at her sport and without a purpose. Now that her thoughts weren't clouded by ambition, she had to wonder… what was she doing, exactly? Was there anything left to strive for in her life?

_Before _was a different time altogether. Things were so different. Before Astrid and Hiccup discovered the Red Death on the back of his dragon, before Toothless was captured in the arena… Before Hiccup supposedly disappeared off the face of the earth.

Maybe, maybe that was where it all changed. After Hiccup disappeared, things in the village became different. There were less accidents, less incidences. Defending from dragon attacks definitely went along a lot more smoothly. The chief even seemed less irritable, even at his son's mention.

Things became more normal… and that's the way it went, for years and years. The villagers moved on; most Vikings didn't have the capacity for memories more than a few years old. But Astrid didn't forget things, especially things like these, that easily. Maybe the other villagers had never had the opportunity to touch the clouds, but… Astrid could never forget something like that.

Before.

Especially on nights like these, she couldn't help but think and wonder if things could have gone a different way if the plan Hiccup had mentioned before entering the arena had worked out. Would she be here, staring into the darkness, wasting her time like she was now? Was this life that she had dreamed of for her entire childhood… the only one that could have ever existed for her?

Before… it was a lifetime ago.

The silence breaks, and the village is filled with the sounds of early-warning horns. The dragons have been spotted, and are on their way. It's about time, too. Sometimes, some thoughts… are better off left in the dark.

Already dressed, Astrid all but leaps from her bed and grabs her axe, rushing down the stairs as she's done a thousand times over during the last few years. The door is swinging wide open—kid themselves all they may, her parents are just as prepared and even steps ahead of her.

Outside her home, the world is chaos. There's very little that can be made out at first, but the skyline of Berk is already illuminated with fire as dragons begin to swoop down and set buildings ablaze. Her eyes take another second to adjust, and she can see them all: thirty, maybe forty, a mix of gronckles, nadders and monstrous nightmares. Vikings are yelling, blades are clashing against horns as the cloud of dragons begins to descend.

Astrid nearly topples over the many necks of a fallen snaptrapper as she runs for higher ground, to where the massive torches are planted and raised above the village to flood it with light. From just above that, giant catapults positioned at the hilltops gear up, loaded with rocks and other projectiles. A catapult goes off at that moment, launching a flaming ball overhead like a shooting star.

(I wish my house will still be there when I get back).

"Incoming!"

Without thinking twice Astrid ducks down, narrowly avoiding a gronckle blast. It sails past her and into the ground. Springing back to her feet, she raises her weapon as the dragon from which the shot came lands heavily before her, baring its teeth as another fiery blast prepares to launch from its mouth.

Just as Astrid raises her axe to fight off the gronckle, not-so-little-anymore Gustav Larson dives in between them. He strikes the gronckle's snout with his sword, slashing a fair gash down the side of its face. Gustav laughs obnoxiously, raising his sword for another blow.

But the cut on the gronckle is superficial, and only annoys the beast. It rears forward, opening its jaw to all but swallow the teenager whole. Gustav jumps back, slips, and falls heavily onto his behind. It was a move nothing short of graceless, but at the moment it prevents him from being bitten in half.

The gronckle leaps forward again. Gustav can't crawl back fast enough.

Groaning, Astrid jumps between them and points the butt of her axe at the gronckle's eye. The dragon hits hard, moaning as it feels the impact and swatting at its swelling eye unsuccessfully.

While the dragon is distracted, Astrid looks over at Gustav. "Get out of here!" She yells at him, keeping her other eye trained on the gronckle.

"I want to help!" He argues, getting back on his feet but with less gusto than he had before.

"If you want to help, go help with the fires!" Astrid has very little patience for any of the amateur dragon fighters, Gustav particularly. "Fighting is only for the people with dragon training!"

Gustav nods, although she's not certain he's at all taken her words to heart as he heads off to (hopefully) help the other trainees with the fires. That kid had a mix of stubborn and arrogant that was probably going to cause her a lot more grief one day.

Astrid notices the gronckle trying to make an escape, and she spins back around to face it. It's slower now, unsure of its movements with only one good eye to direct it, and Astrid knows now is the ideal time to attack the soft tissue between the eyes and kill it.

Although the streets are full of firelight and adrenaline has all but taken over, Astrid can't help but remember her time spent in the dark moments ago. She has to wonder, watching the gronckle struggle to direct itself, if this really was the only life there could have ever been. Everything Hiccup said to her about dragons—could it ever have come to fruition? Flying on Toothless, what she saw in dragon training—was that reality even possible? Could the fighting and killing and destruction have ever stopped?

But her hands automatically move—her body only understands one reality—and she raises her axe, fully intending on ending that gronckle here and now. This is the life she lives, it's the one she was born into and the one she would die protecting.

It's the only life.

But then, a familiar call stops her cold:

"NIGHTFURY!"

"Get down!"

There's less than a second to react as she hears the familiar swoosh of a nightfury and the scream of its plasma blast. That portion of a second is spent falling to the ground and covering her head as a building not far to Astrid's left explodes into a typhoon of wood shards, debris flying in all directions.

Astrid's weapon falls, forgotten, as she feels the impact of a few pieces—nothing more than splinters—stick into her arm. She hears the flutter of the grockle's wings as it takes off, followed by an enormous thud that she both hears and feels. In the illumination of the now burning building, Astrid raises her head just in time to see the outline of black tail slip into the darkness.

That tail… were her eyes tricking her, or did it look like half of that tail was brown, not black? Just like…

No. Could it be?

Ignoring the protest of her arm, Astrid pushes herself back to her feet. There was no way, but that dragon's tail, she couldn't mistake it. There was none like it in the world.

But she hadn't seen or heard of a nightfury since is disappeared along with Hiccup five years ago.

Stoick is yelling orders to the masses, directing everyone to fall behind the catapults, but Astrid pays his directions no mind. Instead, she runs after the nightfury, blindly, fully aware that what she saw may be for the last time.

"Toothless!" She calls out, saying the name she had thought about a million times but hadn't dared to say to any person. "Toothless!"

The further she goes from the village, the darker it seems to get. The stars provide very little light, especially at this time of night, but Astrid continues to wander in the darkness. Looking one way, she swears she sees a pair of bright green eyes watching her from not far away. She blinks and they're gone, but she continues to follow in their direction.

Toothless… where is Hiccup? What happened to you, what happened to him? You must remember me, why won't you show yourself?

Astrid skids to a halt as the realizes she's approaching a cliff drop. She looks around frantically, barely out of breath but tired with frustration. That dragon… there was no way it could fly on its own. If it was Toothless, that meant he had to have help getting to the island. He had a rider. So then where was….?

Astrid turns to face the ocean, sighing with irritation. Where could that dragon have gone? It was on foot, it couldn't have…

Feeling eyes on her back, Astrid stops. After years of dragon hunting, she can easily make out the signs. Shallow breathing, claws faintly scrabbling in the dirt. His bright night eyes are watching her, waiting for her, she can tell. And there's something else with him, something breathing differently, something a little more human but feral all the same.

Astrid turns, ever so slowly, and nearly cries out in surprise. The nightfury… Toothless… and a rider on his back. The rider wears a helmet that includes a mask, so she can't make out his face, but who else could it be? There was no other soul in Midgard that dared ride dragons.

But then… why is Hiccup participating in this attack, instead of stopping it? And where has he been all these years?

Astrid is still as frozen as she was a moment ago. When it came to killing dragons, you just ran at it and attacked. But a dragon with a rider… how does one deal with this kind of situation?

The figure on Toothless also remains still as, not a hundred metres away, the carnage continues in the village. Astrid watches the masked face, but senses nothing from it. The dragon itself seems oblivious to the tension, watching her with slight disinterest before his eyes roamed elsewhere.

Astrid slowly lowers her arms. She doesn't have her weapon anymore. With more care that she'd probably used in her entire life, she takes a brazen step towards the pair before her. When neither rider nor dragon react, Astrid allows herself to utter Berk's five-year-old taboo name: "Hiccup?"

The silence radiating from him is deafening to her. He remains still, says nothing. She allows herself to try again: "Hiccup, is that you?" Even though she knows it can be no one else, she can't help but sense the uncertainty in her voice.

After another brief moment the rider finally moves, raising a hand to point two fingers at Astrid.

"Toothless," He finally says in the voice that could only belong to the chief's son, "plasma blast!"


	2. The Boy Who Wouldn't be Caught

**A/N: Wow, you guys! I'd never expected so many people to take an interest in my story. I hope I can write this to everyone's liking. **

**I also wanted to point out, just to avoid confusion in this chapter, that this isn't exactly the same premise as all the other 'Hiccup ran away' AU. When I mean 'before the red death', I mean everything had happened the same up until the vikings take off with Toothless to raid the nest. The story diverges from there, and what happened on that day is all a part of the story. **

**(P.S. Sorry for the cliffhanger, I'm going to try and put up the next chapter in the next few days). Enjoy!**

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In the brief seconds it takes Toothless to ready up a plasma blast, Astrid is frozen in confusion. She'd never reacted to any kind of attack like this before; she was always the one with stellar instincts, the one that never stopped for a second during a fight.

And Hiccup, he was… Hiccup. He barely survived dragon training; he could barely swing a weapon. The only reason he got by was through his smarts. He hadn't even been able to kill the nightfury in the first place, after shooting it down all those years ago. (She'd admired that, his compassion over brutality). He couldn't hurt anyone, let alone kill them.

Now, she was in his cross-hairs.

"Hiccup!" She yells, but if the rider heard her he didn't react and it was all Astrid had to jump out of the way before she was crisped by Toothless' plasma blast. She slides over to the edge of the cliff, feeling the familiar rush of heat and wind hit her back as the fire ball narrowly missed her.

From her periphery she sees Toothless shoots upwards, sailing over her head and flying away from Berk and towards the ocean. As if he were a beacon, the dragons attacking Berk soon follow after them, and just like that, the hordes have disappeared into the darkness.

Astrid is breathless. Confused. _Angry._What the hell was all that? He tried to _kill _her! He knew it was her, he had more than enough time to figure that out, and then he tried to kill her! Even as other Vikings made their way to the cliff's edge to see if she was still alive, she could barely hear them.

During the cleanup that night into the early morning, Astrid was completely distracted. She was just in utter shock—could it really be? After all of these years, after his sudden disappearance, was this what had become of Hiccup? It was insane to think about, she could barely wrap her head around it.

He was supposed to be dead. That's what everyone had told her, that's what all the elder Vikings said. Hiccup was a ghost returned.

But with all of the questions, there was only one thing she could think to do: she had to talk to him. No, she had to get _him _to talk to her. She had to know, and then, she had to stop him. But how?

She nearly dropped a load of lumber on her own foot as she stumbled over a loose rock. Ivan Thurston gave her a skeptical look, as if he couldn't even imagine a world where _Astrid_ could trip. She smiles sheepishly, bending over and scooping up the planks.

She had to get his attention, and she knew exactly how she'd do it.

**.**

**.**

**.**

Ever since dragons raids had become a full-time gig, so had Gobber's job at the blacksmith's. Especially since he hadn't bothered to replace his apprentice since Hiccup had disappeared. Now he had two interns and not a moment to spare from un-bending swords and un-denting shields and fixing every kind of weapon that a Viking could conceivably break. That job took up most of his time, so much so that he'd had to pawn off the job of training the newbies.

The problem was, no one really wanted to do it. They were either too busy rebuilding houses in the wake of the recent onset of attacks or totally unwilling to spend the majority of their waking hours hearing some snot-nosed, pubescent kids whine and get chewed on by dragons. It was _so_ below the respectable Viking; so guess who they gave the job to?

The twins, believe it or not. But then there was the whole incident with the stuffed yak and Hildi Ulfson's big toenail… and the twins were sent to work on a fishing boat far, far away from any yaks or teenagers.

So they made Astrid do it. Teaching, she quickly learned, wasn't her forte. It didn't feel right to her. But somebody had to do it, and gods knew Astrid was not going to a fishing boat.

Unfortunately, she had plans that didn't involve a group of rowdy teenagers.

"Astrid, what are we doing out here?" Gustav asks, heading the small pack of trainees as Astrid leads them down the main stretch. They were supposed to be experimenting with the 143 different poisons the changewing could generate. That was textbook classroom stuff, but a classroom was the last place Astrid needed to be today.

"Good question, Gustav." Astrid stops, spinning around to face her pack. The teens freeze in their tracks, the few at the end running into each other. "Can anyone tell me what they see?" she asks.

Of course, there was no real answer. This kind of lesson was completely made up.

"Silent Sven's Farm!"

"The catapults!"

"A DRAG—oh, wait, no, that's just a statue."

"Great," Astrid clapped her hands together in a teacher-ly manner. She had gotten quite good at faking it. "So today, I want you all to consider what the best points of defense are in the village."

"Come on, Astrid!" Gustav moans, stepping forward from the crowd of his peers. "You saw the battle yesterday; we need to learn how to fight… more! I want to stab something!"

The other kids cheer in agreement.

"Okay, okay!" The teacher raises her arms up, forcing them into fearful silence. "Just… go visit Gobber in the blacksmith's shop. I want you all to, uh, pick out a weapon you'd like to try."

Most of kids nod or (in the traditional Viking manner) grunt in acknowledgement, and head in the other direction to the blacksmith's shop. Astrid needs the kids distracted while she did what she had to do; any way to get them busy was good enough for her.

"I'll be after in a minute!" Astrid says, and just as she feels they are far enough away, she takes off to Stoick's house. While Stoick was out 'chiefing' for the day, she decided she needed to do just a little bit of 'commandeering'. By which she meant it was time for an unsolicited home invasion.

She looked around before going in, and was even more cautious as she pressed slowly on the door. When it gave open she peeked in first, sure that Stoick was out but still afraid to get caught. She had no business being here. She slipped inside and slowly put the door back in place.

Then she was up the stairs.

She wasn't sure exactly what she was looking for; only that she needed something _he_ might want. Lo and behold, as she expected, Hiccup's room was relatively untouched apart from a few crates stacked up in the corner. The room was dusty, full of years of neglect as Stoick, for obvious reasons, probably didn't want to come up the loft. Heck, he probably didn't even fit in the loft.

She went to his desk first, shuffling through a few sheets of damp, stray paper. The notebook he'd always meticulously protected would be the best thing, but it wasn't anywhere in the area. She looked up, but the pages above Hiccup's desk were mostly gone.

She checked under the bed, under his pillow, in the dresser for that notebook. Most of his clothes were missing apart from an itchy-looking yak sweater. She checked around for his helmet, too, but there were very few places he could hide something that big. She knocked at the walls, she stomped on every floorboard. Nada.

The more she looked around… the more it seemed like the room was carefully reassembled. This was a Viking's room, for sure, but there really was no physical evidence that the room had ever even belonged to a particular Viking named Hiccup. No… there were only so many things that rats could take off with. It seemed very suspicious that Stoick would remove all of Hiccup's personal stuff and still leave the space unused.

Astrid didn't have time to do another once-over of the room when she hears the front door swing open and slam into the adjacent wall. She pulls in a shallow breath.

"Astrid? You in here?"

Oh, thank the gods it was only Gobber. Well, Gobber was supposed to be watching her kids… so that wasn't all that great, but at least it wasn't Stoick.

Astrid carefully heads down the first few steps from the loft. She pokes her head out the opening. "Uh, hey, Gobber." She waves nonchalantly.

The older Viking is standing in the threshold of the house; he looks up when he sees her on the stairs. "Y'know, the entire point of giving you the job of training the little ones was so that you'd be watching them instead of me, not… what are ya doing here, anyway?"

"Oh, you know." She finishes walking down the stairs. "I saw a, uh, sheep wander off in this direction, I was just looking for him."

Gobber scratched his head with his hook. "Really?"

"Would I lie?" Astrid shrugged.

"Huh. Y'know, I didn't know the sheep could climb the stairs these days." He sounded completely bewildered over sarcastic, and she felt relieved. Gobber was way too trusting. She slips out the door past him, and he follows as she walks over to the blacksmith's to pick up her trainees.

"I'm telling ya," The older Viking muses, shutting the chief's door behind them. "Those sheep are getting bloody smart. Forget the dragons, I bet ya they're going to be the ones to overthrow us." He says, laughing to himself.

"Yea," Astrid says quietly.

**.**

**.**

**.**

She was going to need a new plan. When she'd gotten to the blacksmith's with Gobber, Astrid had been able to discreetly snoop around as Gobber showed the kids the 23 different alternatives for his hook hand.

But there was nothing. The interns were clueless meatheads; they had no idea what she was talking about.

Old designs, machines, even some of the simple weapons Hiccup had made were gone or missing. It was like he'd never existed apart from the dent in his bed and his fading memory. Astrid was at a loss. There was no way to attract him to stay other than the appeal of trying to blow her up again.

She'd tried to get her mind off of him at dinner, but she just couldn't. It was crazy, how obsessed she was becoming with this. It was obviously becoming clear enough to be noticed.

"You look sad, and it's making me sad." Tuffnut observes from across the table.

(The group of her childhood had made a habit of meeting most nights for dinner, but a majority of the evenings it was usually just her, Fishlegs and Snoutlout since the twins were always away on the fishing boats... Although it was even worse when they got back, since Fishlegs and Snoutlout would fawn over Ruffnut and Astrid would be forced to share intelligent dinner conversation with Tuff).

"Great observation, Tuffnut." Astrid says, looking down at her food dejectedly. She really wasn't in the mood tonight, not for Tuff's lunacy or Snoutlout and Fishlegs incessant come-ons.

Ruff opens her mouth to say something, but when Fishlegs leans in too close she elbows him in the face hard enough to knock him back off his stool. When Snoutlout laughs, in turn she stabs his shoulder with her fork.

"AH!" Snoutlout screeches, his hand coming up to grip the fork. It was really lodged in there. "Ruff, honey, you've got to stop doing that." He says through a forced smile and heavy breaths.

Ruffnut shrugs, grinning. "It slipped again."

Tuffnut starts laughing obnoxiously, and Astrid sighs and lowers her head even more. Sometimes she was lost as to how these people became her friends.

"Are you okay, Astrid?" Ruff finally asks as Tuffnut continues to laugh and Snoutlout struggles to pull the fork out of his skin. "You're acting weird. Like…" She waves a finger in the air, trying to think of the right word. "Like, like Hiccup, before he became cool."

"Reclusive!" Tuffnut volunteers, and all activity at the table ceases as the other Vikings peer at Tuff curiously.

But that's what gets Astrid thinking. Reclusive. There may just be one thing Hiccup had left behind, after all. The one thing that could never be destroyed or stolen.

"Reclusive?" Ruffnut asks, scrunching up her nose in disgust as she looks at her brother.

Tuff raises a hand up defense. "I know big words, I read. You don't know everything about me!"

**.**

**.**

**.**

When the dragons inevitably attack again a few nights later, she was ready. As alarms went off and the massive court torches rose up above the village, Astrid ran the other way.

(Not from fear, don't be ridiculous).

The cove, she just knew it. The cove where he'd met Toothless and she'd discovered them both. That place had to be the only thing left on Berk that meant anything to Hiccup if it had ever meant anything to him-and if she went there, maybe he would, too. Maybe… there was no guarantee he'd even come back at all, but it was the best she had. There were no other ways she could think to get his attention. She'd never find the nightfury unless it wanted to be found.

She ran mostly in the dark, ditching her torch after the brush became too thick and she could no longer go forward without accidentally setting the forest on fire.

By the time she reaches the cove, panting lightly from her sprint, the world is pitch black and the sounds of the ensuing battle between the Vikings and the dragons can easily be heard from this distance. The village is pretty far from this point, but the dragons are loud and every once in a while she can she a quick spurt of fire or smoke from above the treeline. Berk was in the thick of it. It bothers her she can't be there.

Astrid waits.

She never expected him to show up right away (if at all), but she was beginning to get nervous as the fighting continued and nothing was happening. She stays on her feet, ready to move, ready to lunge or strike or just run back to Berk and help her tribe. She moves her hand up and down the hilt of her axe nervously. Here she was, just standing here, waiting for someone who may or may not even come.

The more she thinks about it, the more she decides it was a silly idea. She couldn't hold this over him, this cove. She couldn't destroy it, threaten it. Even if she could set it on fire or something along those lines, what would that do? It was a piece of earth, a few rocks and a small pond.

What reason would Hiccup really have to go to her?

She turns, watching the line above the trees again. Berk needed her help.

And that's when the ground shook with a sudden, heavy force. Astrid hears it and feels it and senses it before she ever sees it. Of course, no one ever _saw _a nightfury.

She turns around, slowly, precariously, and he's there on Toothless' back. He's still wearing the mask, but even with just the light of the stars she can see it could be no one else.

He came.


	3. The Girl Who Wouldn't Quit

**A/N: Hey, everybody! I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint (I know people want to know things)... loving the response, as always. Thank you, everyone! **

**These chapters are short, I know. In my other fic I write too much, and this one I can't write enough! If my story timeline has anything to say about it, I'm hoping these chapters will get progressively longer. For now, I'll try to update faster to compensate. **

**Let the destruction begin!**

* * *

Astrid doesn't know what to do, so she does nothing. She'd spent so long just convincing herself he wasn't going to show, and now that he had she'd lost all of her stored enthusiasm.

He came. He _came. _That must mean he wants to talk to her… and not destroy her, right?

But he doesn't say anything, doesn't move, and Astrid is left wondering if perhaps he's waiting for her to act first. She's hesitant, unsure of what he'll do. This new Hiccup seems to be like nothing she'd experienced from him before.

In one quick, practised motion he throws one leg over to the other side of Toothless' back, effortlessly hopping off the dragon. He's on his feet, standing not ten metres away from her. He still says nothing, but she can feel his eyes on her through the slits in the mask and it's making her nervous.

From over her shoulder, Astrid hears the sound of a screaming dragon.

"Hiccup…" She says slowly, but he doesn't react. Nothing. "Is that you?"

When he doesn't respond, Astrid feels herself getting annoyed. (As she should have expected). She takes a step forward, and his hand twitches as if about to reach for a weapon.

Toothless bounds away, walking off in an interest of checking out his old home.

"Hiccup, what's going on?" She continues, but her voice gets faster as she speaks. "How did you survive? Where have you been? Why are you attacking us?" The questions spill from her mouth faster than she could keep track of them, and she's suddenly overwhelmed by the number of things she doesn't know and all the things he's hiding from her.

"Talk to me!" She demands loudly, taking another step forward and tightening her fingers on her axe. What was wrong with him?

"What are you doing?" She raises a hand to the woods, in the direction of Berk. "Do you have any idea what's going on? Have you lost your mind?!"

He's still silent, motionless beside Toothless, and Astrid feels bubble of rage swim up her throat. What was going on? Why wasn't he speaking? She knew he could, she'd heard him, so why wasn't he talking to her?

Astrid approaches him.

She knows he knows. _Rage is your weakness, Astrid. He knows you'll get mad. Don't get mad. Provoke him, not the other way around. That's the plan._

"I… why am I even bothering?" She asks him. (He's taller now, she notes. She used to be taller than him). She gets close enough to see the glint of green behind the mask. He still does nothing.

She's got to be gusty. "I don't know what demon in Hel possessed you to become like this, but know I'm going to stop you. And even with that, here—" He raises an arm.

Astrid reacts.

Usually, five years ago, Hiccup would have had an axe stuck in his brain by now. But Astrid had forgotten that he'd been gone, living somewhere else with gods-know who doing gods-know what. The armour and the mask should have been her first clue that maybe engaging him could be a bad idea.

He's faster, and before she can even stop herself or readjust her swing, he's ducked out of the line of fire. He dodges under her arms, bringing up a leg and knocking her onto her face.

But Astrid was always fast, too. She's barely on the floor, up again, and this time prepared for any sneaky manoeuvres. He's edging around her, walking back and forth while still facing her direction. He's still within striking distance.

Toothless begins to growl, skirting around to Hiccup with his head lowered and nubby teeth bared. Hiccup holds up a hand and the dragon falls silent.

Astrid lunges at him again, this time aiming low with her weapon in case he decides to duck down. He doesn't, but instead leaps back, and this time Astrid is prepared. Her axe comes back around she knees him in the gut. Her kneecap makes contact with soft leather, and instead of doubling over like she expected he grabs her knee. He throws her upwards, forcing Astrid to fall onto her back. Her weapon skids out of her hand and across the grass.

For a second, the air is knocked out of her. Then, as he steps closer, Astrid hooks her ankle under his knee and forces him down as well. She rolls into a crouch, trying to surge forward and grab his wrists. Her range falls short, and he reaches an arm around her neck and flips them over.

He's sitting on her stomach, pinning her arms down in the grass with his own. (_He's heavy). _ Astrid begins kicking him, and he jolts slightly every time her knee caps connect with his back, but he doesn't take his eyes of her and he doesn't seem to be bothered.

She continues to struggle for a moment, trying to push against him, but this Hiccup was much, much stronger than she'd ever remembered possible. She can't continue to fight him, and stops, resting her head back in the grass.

There's a period of silence where she just looks into the eerie pair of eyes behind the mask, inviting him to do something, finally. The only thing to be heard is Toothless' throaty growling and her and Hiccup's deep breathing.

"Stop trying to talk to me." He says quietly, but in a commanding tone. She just looks up at him, not sure what to say. "Stop trying to figure me out, Astrid. There's nothing to know."

Astrid watches him. How could there be nothing to know? He's disappeared five years ago, and now he's resurfaced with an apparent new taste for blood and surprisingly sharp combat skills. There was everything to know. But she didn't want to speak, didn't want to stop him when he was talking to her, so she says nothing.

"We _were_ friends once." He continues. "No matter how short our friendship was, I feel like I owe you a warning. I'm telling you now, if you want to live, at least past the age of twenty, you should leave Berk. Take as many people as you can with you. _I don't plan on leaving any survivors." _He growls.

"Why don't you just explain yourself," She says, putting just as much spite into her voice. "You can't just return and decide to kill everyone. Why are you doing this?"

But her hands are free and the pressure if off her torso, and by the time she's able to get back on her feet, Hiccup has already mounted Toothless.

The dragon ambles forward a little, watching her curiously.

Had Hiccup really turned evil?

She knows there's nothing left for her to do. "What happened to you?" She asks him, yelling in the voice of her pent up frustration.

She can't tell what he's thinking from the outside of his mask. He tilts his head slightly as Toothless fidgets back and forth. "People don't change, Astrid. People just get stronger."

Then he's gone.

She watches the sky, scanning for any movement, even though she knows there's no chance of spotting a nightfury in the middle of the night. But Astrid's mind is somewhere else, digging up old memories that had been long buried.

_"People don't change, Astrid." _

She remembered those words with a distinct clarity.

It was the last thing he'd said to her before he'd disappeared all those years ago.

After a moment, she looks down again, going over to grab her weapon. (So much use that was). She feels up the handle before turning around and going back to Berk.

Astrid is light on her feet, she always has been, and it takes her very little time to get back to Berk. By the time she breaks the treeline, she can already see that the battle is over—the dragons were gone. The Vikings of Berk would usually be in cleanup mode at this point, but by the quietness of the village, Astrid could sense something wasn't quite right. A lot of the village, more than usual, looked demolished.

She's running the streets before she finally finds someone, who explains to her the disaster at the mill. All the tools, all the things the Vikings ever used for rebuilding after battles had (ironically) been destroyed in the battle. It was strange, they said, the dragons had always been about raiding for food up until this point.

That was because it wasn't just the dragons. Someway, somehow, Hiccup was running the show, now. He'd basically told her that much.

There's a crowd of Vikings in the middle of town, looking over the ridge to the mill, burnt past any hope of saving. Some people are yelling, most are clearly angry. Dragons were destroying their homes; now they were destroying their only means of rebuilding their homes.

Astrid already knew, this was enough. She had to tell Stoick, however much it might hurt him, and leave this problem to the experienced Vikings. Astrid was stubborn, but she wasn't illogical—she knew she couldn't take on a dragon rider by herself. There was no way she was going to let Hiccup continue this.

Before she can do anything, someone stops her.

Fishlegs, looking just a little more battered than usual but, as to be expected, Viking-level resilient. He's still got his weapons on him. "Hey, where were you?"

He wasn't trying to be mean, or imposing. He was just trying to be friendly, wondering where she had been considering she really hadn't been around for the battle. Still, he couldn't have asked a worse question.

"I was _around_, Fishlegs." Her tone is biting, but Fishlegs would probably excuse it as Astrid's classic after-fight demeanor.

Not today, apparently. "I thought something had happened to you. Are you okay?" He asks, looking concerned.

"I'm fine," She begins to walk around him, heading in the direction of Stoick. "I just need to speak to the chief, there's something I saw…"

She trails off when she sees _him. _Gods, Hiccup. What the hell was he doing up there?

Everyone is gathered around the chief or looking over the ridge at the smoldering mill. Fishlegs is facing their direction, his back to the village that Astrid was seeing now. Maybe Astrid was just hypersensitive from her encounter with the dragon-rider, but _no one _was looking, and he was _right there._ A hill above them all, leaning on a stand-post that held up the railing surrounding the dragon arena.

Casually. As if he were waiting in line for dinner.

He was in the village! Now was her chance.

Fishlegs is still rambling on. "—and that's when I told her, but she won't listen to me! I feel like no one listens to me anymo—"

Hiccup makes a motion with his hand. It looks kind of like… a thumbs up?

"Fishlegs, look!" Astrid yells, pointing over his shoulder quickly. Fishlegs looks confused at her sudden outburst, and it takes a second for him to follow her instructions.

"Astrid, what…?" He turns just in time to watch the arena implode.

The metal cage that topped of the arena groans and creaks as it falls in on itself. A giant puff of dusk flies into the air, and all of Berk turns to the noise of the wreckage atop the hill.


	4. The Girl Without a Plan

**A/N: Hello, wonderful people. I'm sorry this chapter has been so long in the making, I was visiting family for Easter (Yea, I know it was forever ago) and I've just recently been reintroduced back into civilization. I hope this chapter can make it up to you guys, but I'm sure some of you are going to be grumbling about it. I know you guys want to know more about Hiccup, but we'll have to get there when we get there. (Next chapter, no joke, I promise). Anyway, I hope you guys like it!**

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It was the strangest atmosphere—a dejected, stunned silence.

If history had been any indication, in any other situation on Berk the Vikings would be in an outrage. There'd be yelling and torch-lighting and marching and frustrated fish-throwing. (The habitants of Berk really did know how to throw a hissy-fit). People were usually moving at this point in the post-battle; putting out fires and organizing how to put out the rest of the fires. Action was the Viking way to deal with any situation and every emotion.

But this time, after this, Berk was _frozen_.

Almost every structure in Berk wasn't more than a decade old, even the mill having been restored just years ago when a flock of smothering smokebreaths had stolen all the nails that held it together. But the arena, that was a stagnant fixture in the life of every Vikings—it had been one of the first things the original settlers had built three hundred years ago. It was just a hole in the ground, but it was an unsaid representation of the Viking will to survive. And now… it was gone.

That should be the very last straw.

Right now, she _should_ go straight to Stoick. She _should_ have all-out sprinted while the crowd was quelled and she has an opening to speak to the chief. But then, everyone would hear her. Then the Vikings, who were quickly growing gloomier with every depressing second, would have one more thing to worry about on top of everything.

The village was destroyed beyond the point of a day's rebuild… and now they'd know that there was an enemy out plotting the island's end. Usually, a common enemy was exactly what Berk needed, but a boy on a dragon wasn't anything like the Outcasts or the Beserkers. It was as bad as the problem of dragons themselves.

So she bites her tongue and follows along as the moment of silence passes and Stoick begins to doll out orders. He split everyone up, assigning them to tend to different emergencies around the island. One group would deal with the burning mill before it spread to the forest, another would move to round up new building supplies, a third would immediately start on village repair and a fourth would trek up the hill to inspect the damage to the arena. The groups were alarmingly small.

Astrid insists on going to the arena, because it was her place of work, after all. Fishlegs gives her a strange look as he's directed to the mill group (since it was his place of work, after all). Astrid hopes he'll just forget about it.

Only a few others that were selected to go up the hill—plus a few of her trainees, who'd recklessly abandoned fire-fighting in the village to see what all the fuss was about on the cliff.

But Astrid didn't have the capacity to watch her kids at the moment. Her mind felt frayed, worrying about every variable of this terrible riddle Hiccup had started, and now she felt like she was creating for herself.

_"People don't change, Astrid."_

She nearly trips over her own feet when the words return to the forefront of her mind, crisp and clear as if he'd just spoken them a moment ago.

Astrid could remember, so long ago, curiously (and insubordinately) peeking through the doors of the great hall as Stoick berated his son for keeping Toothless a secret from Berk. The match with the monstrous nightmare had been, well, a nightmare. But in the past day Astrid had seen what Toothless could do, and what he wouldn't do, and how Hiccup could maybe change everything_. _That day _could _have changed everything… if only Hiccup was better at arguing.

Then Stoick was bursting from the hall, demanding the tribe to ready the ships. And Hiccup, meekly emerging a moment later. She'd looked at him, patient, ready and waiting to remember everything he would say.

Because she saw it, all of a sudden. For a brief moment, Astrid could see it in him. See a leader within the doormat she'd been wiping her boots on since they were kids. Thor, he'd defied histories of all kinds and every instinct that she would have had. And he still seemed up for it, the challenge that was coming his way. Rescuing his best friend, defending his tribe.

Then he raised his head, looked her head-on. And there was no way he couldn't remember that moment as clearly as she did.

_"People don't change, Astrid." _

And then he'd run off, and she'd never seen that boy again. Even their meeting just moments ago—he wasn't the same person she'd known. But what had happened that day that had changed him like it did? She could barely remember, with it being so long ago. She tried to focus on any one detail, on something definite and true that she'd heard from amongst the rumours… but nothing solid came to mind.

What had Hiccup done?

"Astrid?"

She's caught off guard. "Huh?"

Gustav motors up the hill so they were walking side-by-side. "Where are we going to train, now?"

Astrid glances up to the hilltop, but they're not close enough to really scope out all the damage. Either way, she guesses it would be a while before they could rebuild the non-essential structure. "We can always practise fighting in the village."

"What about the dragons…?" Gustav starts, but he trails off.

The dragons indeed. Would Hiccup, apparent ally to all dragons, collapse a structure that still had some inside? "We'll just have to be a little more hands-on during the raids."

Gustav's face lights up. "You mean, like, we'll get to fight the next time the dragons attack?"

Astrid shrugs. "I suppose, if it's alright with the chief."

"Awesome!" The younger Viking cheers, and the rest of the walking group glares at him. There was no time to be happy while Berk was on the brink. Gustav hunches down and hugs his shoulders.

Being near the back of the pack, Astrid was one of the last to reach the damage. Most were just observing the wreckage from the cobblestone walkway; while a few more gutsy others are on top of the debris that had fallen into the pit.

Standing by the wall, Astrid can see the almost-clean lines where the support beams, the metal bars attaching the wall to the rest of the cage, had been singed through. The chains had been snapped, definitely from the outside. The cage had been designed to withstand all kinds of dragon fire. It was no ordinary dragon that did this.

(Toothless' plasma blast, obviously. But she doesn't say anything).

They poke around the door, find it fully intact. An elder Viking commands everyone to be silent—and in the quiet, they can hear the screeching and moaning of the dragons still trapped in their cages.

"So what do you want to do with the dragons, Astrid?" One of the other Vikings ask her. They were still her responsibility, as the Viking-trainer. "I mean, I don't think we'll be able to keep feeding them, now. And they're not any use to us if there's no arena to train the little ones in."

Astrid didn't know. The easiest and smartest option would be to just put them down at this point. But that old voice, refreshed from her recollection of her last words with Hiccup, nagged at the back of her mind. _Dragons aren't all bad, you know. You saw that. Wouldn't it be wrong just to kill them?_

_But Hiccup's not here to train them, at least not anymore. They'd still kill us if they had the chance. _

But instead of saying that, she just shakes her head. "We'll let the chief decide. We can't do anything about them until we can get all of the metal out of the way."

"We could always just leave them in there." Gustav suggests. Astrid is surprised to feel her stomach tighten at the thought of letting the dragons die in there. That was too cruel.

The older Viking laughs loudly. "Have you ever tried to move a dead dragon, son? Besides, the smell will overpower the entire village. Imagine twenty sweaty Outcasts who use rotten fish to wash their beards."

Gustav makes a face, and the rest of the Vikings laugh, and Astrid takes a moment to relieve her gut before she half-heartedly joins in.

**.**

**.**

**.**

Astrid couldn't shake the idea that Hiccup was watching her.

He'd been in the village the night before, and probably a number of times before that. How many times had she passed faceless people on the roads of Berk at night, any of which could have possibly been him?

It made sense, now, why all of his things had been missing from his home—because he'd probably never really been gone. Even if he _had_ been away for a long time, his father more than likely never went up to the loft, and there were more than a few opportunities to sneak in and take everything of value. He obviously wasn't scared to visit if he'd come into the village and allowed himself to be seen. Gods know how long he'd been coming in and out.

(That all sounded a little paranoid, she had to admit. But he had no reserves, and apparently, no fears. Those people were the most dangerous and the most daringly stupid. She should know; she lived with those people).

The next day, on the account of Berk's recent intense destruction and the collapse of the arena, Astrid had dedicated the trainees to helping with the rebuild. The little teens helped to totter around wood and do the shingling on the roofs where the meatier Vikings would slide right off.

But while directing her students, Astrid's mind was on the chief and what she was going to say to him.

_(So… your son, who you said died, has miraculously returned to life. Oh, and he was the one who burned down the mill, and destroyed the dragon arena, and probably organized the rest of the Berk's destruction, at least for the past few months. Also, he wants to kill us all. Just thought you'd like a heads-up.)_

"Astrid!" She can barely hear her name being called over the commotion of the construction. She looks over her shoulder to see the chief waving her down as he walks the main stretch. Astrid makes eye-contact in acknowledgement, then goes back to watching her kids as she waits for him to head over.

She's suddenly… incredibly nervous about the chief wanting to speak with her. It made her realize the importance of everything she'd been hiding. Watching the wake of the destruction from last night, now might just be the perfect time to tell Stoick everything.

The chief has someone else to take over Astrid's position, and pulls her aside, pretty much out of earshot. (Perfect opportunity, perfect opportunity).

"Gobber informed me about the dragons still trapped in the arena," He says, loudly enough to be heard over the noisy village but not loud to let the conversation involve anyone else but the pair of them. "We can't let them stay in there, but I'm starting to realize we can't spare the men to move that much metal. Gobber's going to volunteer his interns to help, would you be able to dedicate the kids to clearing up the arena? The least it will do it get them out of the village for a bit."

Astrid nods in agreement. "That's fine. We'll start tomorrow." It might be good for her, too, to get out of the village a bit. To spend some time on mindless grunt work instead of trying to make up lessons for the trainees. "What do you want to do with the dragons once the cage is moved?" She asks.

"I'm not sure yet. We'll just keep them until I can figure out something to do with them."

"I'll leave it up to you then." Astrid pauses, not completely sure what to do. Moment of truth time. "I—"

But when she looks up, takes a good look at her chief, it's that scary, dark shadow of doubt that crosses her mind again. Even if only for a second, she still sees it pass and it makes her stop cold. Because the more she thought about it, the more Astrid had realized how the details of _that day _had been so… skewed. How no one had ever really mentioned what had happened to the nightfury after they had taken it to the nest. Hiccup had to have recovered Toothless somehow… there had been so many rumours, but why was there no definite truth?

_How_ could a father write off his own son?

The entire thing sounded ridiculous to her. Did she really doubt her chief, her leader, the protector of her family?

Well, yea. The answer was yes. Because suddenly Astrid felt like she didn't know the entire story. And maybe it shouldn't have been just her decision to hold on to what she knew, but if the rash Viking actions of her ancestors had told her anything, it was that Vikings thought very few things through completely.

"—it's nothing." She finishes, and Stoick gives her a weird look. Astrid shrugs. "I'm just tired, that's all."

Even that was something the older warrior could relate to, and he solemnly nods his head before allowing Astrid to go back to her work.

(Gods, what was happening to her?)

**.**

**.**

**.**

Night fell and marked the end of the day, and still Astrid hadn't done anything proactive. In fact, she felt tired after just having argued with herself all day long. She hadn't even brought up the idea of training the kids during the next raid. Maybe, tonight, she'd go to Stoick's house and ask him. And maybe she'd just mention Hiccup, too. Somehow.

Then Fishlegs had found her.

"Hey, Astrid!" He yells, lumbering after her as she's on the walk home. Astrid internally cringes.

She really, really, _really _hoped he'd forget about yesterday.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm on my way home. It's been a long day, y'know?"

"Ughh, don't I know it?" Fishlegs looks more stiff than usual, a stunning difference from his normal array of exaggerated gestures. "We haven't had this much work to do since that smothering smokebreath fiasco five years ago, eh?"

"Yea,"

"Not as bad as the speed stinger swarm, though. Dragons, huh?"

"Yea, dragons." Astrid says quietly.

There's a brief moment of silence, and Astrid knows Fishlegs is just waiting. He didn't forget.

"So, yesterday, before the arena collapsed, what did you see, anyway? Nobody told me about anything unusual, but… from what I've heard, it must have been a pretty wicked dragon to do something like that."

She looks over at him, not fully prepared to explain herself or lie, either. Maybe, maybe it really was about time she tell someone.

"Well… the truth is, Fishlegs, a few days ago I saw—" That's when the swooping dragon flying overhead comes into view. "Duck!" She yells suddenly, pointing at the dragon. When Fishlegs continues to look confused _again, _Astrid pulls him down the ground just as a massive nadder flies low enough to nearly bite their heads off.

"DRAGON ATTACK!" Another Viking yells as the swarm of dragons starts to accumulate overhead. _So many dragons. _Astrid swallows, her throat feeling dry.

This was endgame for him. She may not have that many opportunities for action left.

As the torches rise into the air for the second night in a row and the catapult men scramble to find new ammo on such short notice, Astrid makes a split second decision. While Fishlegs bustles away to join the ranks of gathering Vikings, Astrid (rather unwisely) heads back to the cove.

**.**

**.**

**.**

The waiting is killing her.

Astrid knew, from the stretch he'd made her wait the last time that she'd have to be patient.

(For the hundredth time, Astrid wondered why she didn't just tell everyone. She shouldn't be doing this, waiting at the mercy of an elusive and killer dragon rider. Her logic was full of holes and shot as Hel, even as she reasoned that she might as well do what she could while she was there.)

What she's hoping to achieve, she isn't sure. Talk to him or reason with him or try and hit him again… or possibly a combination of the three. Anything she could do to try and keep the situation in her control.

But Astrid quickly realizes she has no power. The ball had never been in her court to begin with. Because the longer she waits, the easier it is to realize he's not coming back. As she stood there watching smoke rise form beyond the trees, Astrid finally gave in to the itch in her legs. The dragons had come and gone, and here she was waiting for a ghost that didn't want to be seen in the first place.

By the time she makes it back to the village, the tribe was in full-blown emergency mode. In the past when the dragons attacked, they really only took food and destroyed buildings that got in the way. Now… a good quarter of Berk looked like it was on fire, and the entire village was rushing to put out as many blazes as they could.

Astrid had never realized the true amount of destruction the dragons could cause until now.

She doesn't know what else to do but join the ranks and pretend she'd been there the entire time. She goes over to the nearest water pump, and helps to fill buckets as a number of other Vikings race back and forth from house to house. A lot of the emergency procedures they'd made to protect houses from fires still hadn't been refilled or reset from the night before.

.

.

.

You'd better believe the trainees knew how to complain. If they weren't getting to slash or pummel something, any activity was no fun to them. It would have been easier to track down Reeking Rorak on bath day, with all of the resistance they gave her.

"Oh, cooooome ooooon, Astrid!" Gustav moans, pretending to faint in the most dramatic way possible. "I want to fight dragons, not clean up their messes!"

The other kids snicker as Gustav stretches out on the ground like he's trying to get comfortable, and Astrid has to wonder for the hundredth time how she ended up with this ridiculous job. She goes on to explain how they were going to methodically break apart the pieces and move them out of the pit, starting with the chains, then the pieces by the enclosure doors. The least they needed to get done today was move enough wreckage to be able to access the doors and prevent the dragons from starving.

Finally the blacksmith apprentices showed up (but more importantly, their tools), and Astrid stood on the top of the wall as she monitored the kids below hack away at the tough metal cage.

"Pretend it's a dragon!" She yells down in encouragement, which seemed to really energize them.

By the time the sun signals high noon, they've made a pretty decent hole in the ruin. The trainees were pretty close to clearing the way to the first door, and Astrid jumps into the pit to help them heave the last few pieces out of the way.

Astrid is on the back end of a rather long piece, carrying it towards the arena door with another kid carrying the front end. Gustav in her peripheral vision looking _way _too gleeful as he cut at the last few pieces by the first door. But looking back so quickly, Astrid barely notices something that should have been so obvious. Maybe she was imagining it.

She twists a bit more as they walk, and this time she can't believe she didn't see it. She remembered, ever since she was a kid, looking at the enclosure doors and bracing herself from the sun. The number of nails that held the doors together would always catch the light, especially from the noon sun, and shine right in your face. It was only a safety precaution, but, oh, how it ever annoyed Astrid during dragon training. Now… She immediately drops the bar, and runs towards Gustav. The other kid stop walking suddenly as the metal bar hits the sand, confused.

"Gustav!" She yells, motioning with her hands. "STOP! Get out of the way!"

The teenage Vikings give her a strange look, but he thankfully follows instructions and backs away from the metal bar upon seeing her serious expression.

The metal pegs that had once held the door to the wall were _gone_. The heavy wooden blockade that kept the doors of the dragon's cages was completely useless without those few pegs. The fallen cage had been the only thing keeping the door from detaching from the wall. Hiccup hadn't just collapsed the arena, after all.

But Astrid's warning is too late. The bar that Gustav had been breaking was the last thing keeping the door from falling. The metal is nearly sawed through, and can't support the weight of the barrier. It snaps, and with an earth-moving thud the door to the dragon's cage falls outward and hits the ground.

A monstrous nightmare bursts from its cage, shrieking. It surges forward, probably just relieved to see sunlight again after so many days in the dark. It grunts loudly, raising its head from the ground to look up at the open sky.

The arena full of kids is frozen. For a moment, Astrid is sure the nightmare will just fly away.

Gustav drops his saw in shock. The nightmare's head instantly turns in his direction, its eyes lighting up as it sees something edible for the first time in two days.

Why hadn't she just told Stoick when she'd had the chance?


	5. The Boy without Rules

**A/N: Wow, guys, look at me! Two chapters in the same week. Thank you all for your patience (and your forgiveness, since I'm starting to think I use too many Viking alternatives to common phrases... you'll see when you read it). I'm still stunned by the wonderful response I've been getting to this :) Thank you, everyone reading. Anyway... conflict ahead! **

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Gustav looks like a sheep caught in sledlights, completely frozen as the nightmare steps closer and growls at him. It takes him a second to understand his cue, throw his hands in the air and make himself scarce. Unfortunately for Gustav, an angry monstrous nightmare was a little bit faster than a skinny teenager. Fortunately for Gustav, Astrid has dealt with enough nightmares in her lifetime to know what to do.

The other trainees scramble behind their teacher, making for the door like a Thorston twin to a flame. But what they were all forgetting was that there was no longer a cage to protect them from the inside of the arena. Outside, inside, they would all be sitting yaks unless they tried to contain the dragon.

"Hey, over here!" Astrid yells, grabbing a chain from the floor and lobbing the tangled length at the dragon. The chain hits the dragon's snout, and after shaking the string off, suddenly the nightmare is less concerned about tasty appetizer Gustav and more focused on delicious entrée Astrid.

(_So this is probably what it would have been like, _Astrid thinks as the nightmare advances on her. This would have been my moment five years ago if Hiccup hadn't stolen it.)

Astrid scoops up another chain from the floor. She swings it around, allowing it to pick up momentum as she backs up slowly to allow herself the most possible force. When the dragon is just within the range to snap her in half, she lets the chain fly, while still holding on to one end. The other end flies out and strikes its face, and the beast rears back.

Astrid reels in the chain and swings it again. She lets it fly with less prepared force and it strikes the dragon's side, and this time the nightmare begins to back away. On her third swing, she strikes at the floor, driving the nightmare to lower its head and back into the wall. Its flames begin to putter out.

Then she sees Gustav. He's holding the saw he just dropped, gripping it with both hands as he sneaks around the side of the dragon. And if it was easy enough for Astrid to spot him, of course the dragon was going to see him, too.

Brave idiot.

The nightmare turns its head quickly, looking at the trainee with a new fire in its eyes. It roars loudly, and Gustav raises his saw. Brave idiot.

Astrid saw Gustav's strike working. Probably. The dragon was just in the right position to have its head cleaved right off. It was that small chance that Gustav wouldn't be fast enough, or the saw wouldn't be sharp enough that instantly worried her.

And she remembered _that day, _and how the nightmare had stopped when Hiccup had all but asked it to. How the creature hadn't been evil, at least not when given the chance.

But all of those variables were ones Astrid wouldn't chance, so she leaps, throwing the chain simultaneously. The dragon is distracted for just a second by the rattling chain, and in that second Astrid tackles Gustav. She forces the saw from his hands, throws it to the sides, and spins them both into the hole in the wall that was the nightmare's enclosure.

By the time the dragon turns back they're already out of sight, and it screams in frustration. She hears it scrabble up the side of the wall, and the powerful rush of air as the wind catches under its wings. The nightmare screams again as it takes off and disappears from the arena.

Astrid removes her arms from around her trainee, and turns him around. "What in Thor's name were you thinking?!"

"I thought I could kill it, Astrid!" Gustav whines. "You shouldn't have gotten in the way, I could have done it!"

Astrid exhales loudly, trying to relieve the pressure that had built up in her chest. "It's not that _easy." _When Gustav makes a frustrated face, she waves him off. "You'll learn." She says, before moving back into the open part of the arena.

"Is everyone okay?" She calls, and slowly the rest of her trainees' heads pop up from the sides of the arena. Most of them looked spooked, including the two apprentices.

"Astrid…" she hears a girl call weakly, and looks over to see one of her group with her foot stuck in the twisted metal bars from the fallen cage. Gods, if the nightmare had gotten to her…

Astrid goes over and helps her out, and slowly the rest of the kids climb back into the pit. But they don't look confident or comfortable, not anymore. That just goes to show how their training was far from complete.

In the end, everyone is allowed to go home early. Maybe time in the village wouldn't exactly lift their spirits, but she sure as Hel wasn't going to get any more productive work out of them (and for good reason).

Astrid goes to inspect the other doors with the two apprentices, and sees how all of the pegs had been removed. If they'd cleared the path to any of these doors, or gods forbid more than one at once, all of these dragons would have been able to break free. Thankfully the apprentices have the right tools to make more pegs, and the three of them spend the rest of the day securing the rest of the doors. If the dragons had to wait another day, that would be the price. As long as no more got free and almost ate her trainees.

The sun is setting over the horizon by the time they're done and the apprentices have packed up.

"You coming, Astrid?" One of them asks, looking at her with a worried expression. He bends over and shoulders their toolbox, but his eyes don't leave the Viking trainer.

Maybe Astrid was a bit rattled, too. She hadn't been ready for such an attack, but… she should have been faster on her feet. She had the most information of all of them, and still she didn't use it to her advantage. She should have at least considered the idea that Hiccup would have messed with the cages.

Especially now, she needs to go talk to the chief. All suspicion be damned.

But she doesn't really want to walk down the hill with the two other young Vikings and have them curiously stare at her the whole way down. People were just so… nosy. Especially now, when the only popular topics in the village was either gossip or imminent destruction by dragon's fire.

"I'm just going to do one last round, make sure all the doors are secure." She decides out loud, thumbing over her shoulder at the arena. "If we have to come back here tomorrow… I want to make sure it'll be safe for everyone."

The apprentices consent without arguing, and grab their stuff as they begin the trek down the hill. Astrid watches their heads disappear over the hillside before going back to the arena. She climbs inside, no longer bothering with the door, and checks the pegs on every bolt on every door. She combs by every piece one by one, and it's pretty dark by the time she's satisfied enough to climb out again.

She ends up hoisting herself back up onto the wall on the way out, but pauses before she can plant her feet again on the ground.

Everything was going to change when she told Stoick. Maybe not immediately, but things would definitely change. Hiccup was an enemy Berk had never seen before (in strength and tact), and they were going to have to do things differently if they wanted to defeat him. Did that mean riding dragons? No, probably not. But they had to do something.

Astrid wondered how they'd look at her, too. She'd never so much as thought out exactly what she was going to say. There was no way she could admit to knowing about this threat as long as she actually did. They wouldn't trust her if they knew she'd been holding onto this for so long.

She looks up at the sky, at all the stars, and rubs both hands over her face. Gods, such a simple decision had never felt so complicated.

She's a heartbeat away from standing up and heading back down to Berk when the warning horns go off.

_Another raid. _Three days in a row.

Astrid can't believe what she's hearing, but the lights from the village don't lie—she can see large, solid figures swooping in and out and blocking the glow from the village, and those can only be dragons. A sudden, flaming gronckle blast lights up the sky before plummeting back down to earth like a meteorite.

Astrid is on her feet. In the entrance to the arena, there were weapons lined on the inside walls. There wasn't going to be time to think about Hiccup tonight. She'd find herself a good axe or sword or mace, and she'd be fighting along her people for this battle.

She's practically skidding on the cobblestone as she sprints around the arena, sliding into the wide entranceway full of weapons. Her hands close around the thing on the closest wall: a pretty wicked looking dagger, and she reaches to the left for a shield when… a sound in closer proximity than the rest.

She can hear the sounds of the fighting below pretty well from the hilltop, but a sudden noise makes Astrid freeze mid-reach. It's a near-silent swoosh, something most Vikings with weaker instincts wouldn't have noticed. And that was the whole point, wasn't it?

Nightfuries were meant to be silent.

But no, no way. What were the chances?

She leans over, just slight enough that she doesn't even have to move her feet, and peeks into the open arena space from the hallway.

"Come on, what did I tell you?" _Hiccup. _From where she's standing she can only see a pair of boots and Toothless' black claws perched in the wall, but who else could it be?

"And my father always said a man's work is the one he does himself." Toothless seems to hum in agreement. With never-before-seen agility, Hiccup skids down the side of the wall. He was in the arena. He was _here. _

Astrid tightens her grip on the knife. She should go out there now, when she had the chance and the weapon. But strategy dictates she wait a few seconds longer, at least to know what he was doing here.

He keeps talking, but not loud enough for her to make out. In the darkness she can see his outline approaching the enclosure doors, inspecting them and probably seeing all the pegs replaced. From the dull light of the stars she can see he's taken his helmet off.

Toothless hums again.

"I had a feeling she'd figure it out, too." Hiccup says loud enough for Toothless to hear him. "But at least they got us this far. And she probably won't even notice the dragons are gone until they're _long _gone."

Toothless makes another noise.

"I'm not _prolonging_ _anyth_—you know what, we'll talk about this at home. Just, would you get the pulley, please?"

The pulley. The only way to open the dragon cages were by the pulley system that was controlled from the outside. He was going to let the rest of the dragons out.

Toothless sounds like he's whining, and Hiccup turns to look up at his dragon. It's still so dark, she can barely see the outline of his body, but he's almost facing in her direction. Curiosity grips her for a moment. She wants to see his face.

She leans back, even more slightly, trying to get a good glimpse while still not revealing herself in the tunnel. Her foot grinds ever so slightly against the ground as she twists.

She should have known better; Toothless hears her. In an instant the dragons leaps into the pit, growling and bowing his head in her direction. He's far away still but she can clearly see his eyes illuminated in the darkness, the slight slits of pupils that signaled he meant business. The dragon could easily pounce and strike from this distance.

Hiccup scrambles with his helmet, almost comically, before plunking it on his head and squaring himself in her direction. "Who's there?"

Not seeing any other choice, Astrid steps forward into the arena. Toothless' growl deepens and he as well takes a step forward towards Astrid.

"Astrid." Hiccup says, his voice sure and so unlike the one she's heard a moment before arguing with his dragon. After a moment of silence she realizes he's not going to say anything else.

She takes another step forward. She had thought about this moment as much as any other, and now that they were face-to-face again she had no idea what she was supposed to do. She'd seen, directly and indirectly, exactly what he could do. He'd almost gotten her and her trainees killed, and it didn't seem to bother him. He was destroying Berk as they spoke. She guessed the best option was the old Viking fallback.

"Fight me," She says just loudly enough. She had no choices.

She can hear the smirk on his voice. "Really? You don't remember what happened the last time?"

Astrid decides not to respond, and he looks like he's mulling it over. What he had to gain, what he had to lose. But she couldn't tell by his stature alone what he was thinking.

He finally moves, looking over at Toothless. "I'll meet you down in the village after."

Toothless' intimidating stance loosens up as he raises his head and looks over at Hiccup like '_Really?'. _

"Just go, I won't be that long."

Astrid feels a spark in the pit of her stomach. Like Hel she was going to let him beat her twice at her own game.

When Toothless finally climbs out of the pit and away, Hiccup rolls his head in her direction. "Are you sure about this? I feel like you're underestimating me."

Astrid doesn't respond, just raises her knife, but then hesitates knowing the weapon won't make it a fair fight.

He shrugs. "Keep it." And then he's running at her, much faster than she could ever remember him doing and she's swinging the knife, much out of instinct than anything else.

But even as she's mid-swing, she already knows it's a mistake. He leans back, dodging the arc of the knife and grabbing her elbow. He twists her arm, forcing the knife out of her hand and throwing her weight off balance, sending Astrid tumbling onto her back. Now he's sitting on her stomach again in this oh-so-familiar position from that night at the cove. He holds the knife by her face.

"I warned you," he muses aloud. His voice is annoyingly smug.

Astrid doesn't say anything. Her arms are free, but the knife is too close for comfort.

"I also told you to leave, and you didn't _listen_." He brings the tip of the blade even closer to her face. "I'll tell you one last time, just because you made this fight so easy for me: leave Berk, Astrid. Leave or I won't hesitate to kill you the next time I see you."

Astrid still says nothing, not really wanting to push her luck with that knife so close to her face. She can barely see his eyes behind the mask, and it frustrates her that she can't read him while he's like this. (A part of defeating the enemy is knowing the enemy… Not that she could excuse her poor fighting choices on that).

He stands up and tosses the knife in the sand far enough away so that she couldn't get to it quickly. Stepping over her side, he makes his way to the door.

She should have given up at this point, but there was no way Astrid was going to let him get away, not while she might have a chance to end this war before it even became a war. He was being cocky, turning his back to her like that. He was underestimating _her._

Astrid rolls over a few times, finding her way to the knife. As soon as she wraps her hand around the blade, she throws the knife with the precise accuracy of a warrior who hadn't missed a target in ten years.

He beats her to the punch, rotating quickly enough to raise his arm and use the leather cuff of his armor to block the knife. The blade bounces off the suit easily, clattering to the ground at his feet.

"Didn't we just talk about this?" He asks her, tilting his head to the side.

"I can't let you continue this, Hiccup. Everything you're fighting for, it's wrong!" She says more than loud enough for him to hear.

"You don't know the half of what I'm fighting for."

"Then why can't you explain yourself?" Astrid grinds out.

"All you need to know is that you need to leave."

The next moment is silent, a standoff, Astrid trying to decide exactly what her next move should be. She couldn't let him get away, especially if it meant he would continue his tirade. Her village and Berk was her everything right now, and she had to protect it. Even if that meant within the means of her life, Viking style.

"Then you're going to have to kill me."

He sighs, taking a moment before looking down and hooking the toe of his boot under the dagger by his feet. He kicks it forward, so it skids towards Astrid. One hand reaches for the straps on his arm while the other grabs something by his belt and Hiccup pulls out a pair of identical knives, both with ridged edges and angled tips in a design that Astrid had never seen before. He nods towards the knife on the floor.

"I've learned a thing or two in the past few years," He says to her as she carefully grabs the dagger and climbs to her feet. "But I'm still giving you the chance to walk away."

Astrid doesn't speak, responding instead by raising her knife.

His charge is fast, but this time Astrid is prepared for the speed of his strike. She plays at defense, dodging under and around the twin blades, just to get a feel of having to watch for two weapons instead of one. She notes how he swings more dominantly with his left than his right.

Her dagger has yet to meet his, and as she jumps back a considerable distance she can see he's not even close to tired. With the limited light and darkness of the mask, she can't even see his eyes underneath. What she wouldn't give to get—

He leaps forward abruptly, catching Astrid off guard and forcing her to move out of instinct. As his left hand comes down predictably higher, she raises her own blade to block his swing. Before his other knife has the change to chop her arm off, Astrid jumps up against the pressure of the left knife to kick her legs full-force into his stomach.

(He may have been the one to twist her arm, but she was the one to use it first, after all).

Hiccup flies backwards, dropping one of his knives to keep his balance as he skids across the dirt on his feet.

"Not bad," He says, but it sounds condescending and nibbles away a little bit more at Astrid's stomach.

She runs at his instead, leading with her knife but feigning it at the last second to bring her leg up to give him a face-full of yak boot. Her kick is high, it should be just high enough to catch his neck but it also happens to be just high enough for him to duck under. While her leg's coming back around he runs an arm under hers and grabs her opposite shoulder, using the momentum of her own kick to spin her around so they stop moving in a weird kind of hug.

Astrid feels her knife touch chainmail, and for a second she thinks she may have had him beat. Her knife was just a good shove away from removing a kidney. Then she feels his hands on her face and jaw, and finally notices the position he'd put them in. (He must have dropped the other knife somewhere).

One quick move and he could snap her neck. Even if she stabbed him first, he'd probably have enough energy left to kill her while they were standing so close like this.

Astrid can't see his face, barely able to get a glimpse of the side of his head in her periphery. Not moving, barely breathing, the realization of her imminent death is dawning in her mind. He'd said he would kill her.

But still, seconds pass and no one has done anything. What was he waiting for? She considers driving the knife into his side and getting it over with. Very slowly, she angles the knife upwards against him.

If he notices he doesn't show it. "Are you going to kill me or what?" She asks pointedly.

Hiccup breathes out heavily. "What do you want from me, Astrid?" Each word sounds laboured.

A twist and an upward thrust would be just enough to maybe get him off her. But the sudden possibility of answers makes her freeze her blade. "I want the _truth._" She says it with more acid than she meant to.

He abruptly throws her back, Astrid landing heavily on her rear. She's in shock for just a second, not entirely sure why he'd just let her go. He'd shown himself to be ruthless, time and again. Why now…?

She looks up and his back is to her, hands intertwined behind his head as he appeared to be forcing his face to look at the ground.

But he'd said…

Astrid realizes she still has the knife in her hand. She could easily throw it and end this all right now. He didn't look like he would be able to stop it in time, not in the position he'd put himself in and with the distance between them. But instead she pauses, curiously nagging at her as to _why_ he hadn't killed her. She discreetly tucks the knife underneath her legs.

One of Hiccup's hands fall as the other reaches back to grip the base of the helmet. With one quick tug, he pulls the helmet off and tosses it to the side. It rolls and stops a few feet away.

No helmet… no mask… she can see his hair more clearly, how much longer it had gotten since they were kids. He turns his head and looks over his shoulder at her, but the darkness won't allow her to get any more than a sliver of a profile.

Was he…?

He rolls his shoulder once, then turns around to face her.


	6. The Boy Speaks Out

**A/N: Well... I know it's been a while. After my last update, it was just prom and exams and now work and I've had no time. But anyway... to anon sumi, don't you worry, I have no plans on abandoning this story. I spent waaay too much time mapping it out to leave it, not to mention I don't want to let you guys down. Anyway...**

**So a lot of you have made some very educated guesses on the nature of, well, let's say Hiccup's face after all those years. I just wanted to say, although you may not see it now, a lot of you guys are very close to correct ;) Stay tuned, and thank you for your patience.**

* * *

Astrid wasn't sure what to expect—her instincts, she'd decided a long time ago, were perfect. But now she was starting to realize that her instincts only took her as far as the meatheaded Vikings she dealt with every day. Her instincts didn't go as far as this boy. She had no idea what to expect from him.

Because now he's looking right at her, chin raised defiantly and stance tense. And his face—although more rugged, it was still the one she remembered from five years ago… and she suddenly wondered if it would have been to her benefit to never see behind the mask after all. This boy looked too familiar, and too human to ever be someone that was supposed to be her enemy.

Then came the rush as Astrid's memory struggled to keep up. It was trying to figure him out, see where he aged and decide how all of Hiccup's awkward features had somehow meshed together to make this updated version of his face. She remembered his messy teeth and unruly hair and the faint scar on his chin that just caught the moonlight. And she sees something else, one thing she didn't remember from before, but he turns his head quickly before she can really gauge the mark.

"Is this what you want?" He says weakly.

She doesn't know what to say back so says nothing and waits for him to do something.

After a moment he touches his fingers to his forehead, his eyes downcast. "I…I may have owed you a warning, but I don't owe you this. Just…" But he doesn't finish the thought, instead walking over a scooping up his helmet. He tucks it under his arm, and once again makes his way for the door.

He was going to walk out. No. Hel, no.

Astrid stands up, grabbing the knife and holding it at her side as she followed after him.

"You can't just walk away!" She yells as she stalks after him. "I want an explanation!"

He abruptly stops walking. "Drop the knife, Astrid."

"What?"

He spins around to look at her. "I said drop the knife!" He looks angry, his voice finding a dangerous tone she'd never heard him use before.

She almost surprises herself as she feels the blade slip from between her fingers and hit the sand.

"Gods," He growls. "You're just like the rest of them! Stupid and stubborn and selfish!"

Astrid exhales loudly, her sense of entitlement and natural Viking stupidity making it hard for her to see she shouldn't be aggravating him. "At least I'm not a _traitor."_

"You don't know anything, Astrid. You don't know the world; you've barely ever left the island! Everything you know is from here—" He points in one direction then the next, "—to there, how can you understand what's right and what's wrong?"

"I don't need to travel the world to know that it's wrong to kill your family!"

Hiccup looks like he's either going to burst into laughter or burst into tears (probably a combination of the two,) and he smirks at her while he shakes his head. "I was never accepted here. Not a day in my life. Not by you, not by my father, not by anyone. If this tribe is my family, why is it that I never felt like I was wanted around?"

She wanted to speak, wanted to put out what she knew was a futile argument, because he was right. Berk had rejected Hiccup when he was just a kid… how could she have expected him to hold any loyalty to it? But then, had he really come to the point where he felt the need to exact revenge?

"You, them, all Vikings are never going to change." His tone is calm again, and Astrid forces herself just to listen. "And… that's the way it is, it's the way it's always been here. I was stupid to think anyone could change. But the dragons, they shouldn't have to pay for your ignorance. This was their home long before it became ours.

"If Vikings can't learn, Astrid, then they have to leave. Otherwise, nobody wins and everybody dies."

That's why Hiccup's army hadn't completely destroyed Berk at their every opportunity—he was trying to get the Vikings to leave by destroying their roots on the island. That's why he kept coming back, night after night, never taking food because that's not what they were after. He was trying to flush them out.

But even so, even with his logic, he was making a mistake. "You're wrong, Hiccup." She says, matching his tone and trying to add a hint of compassion. "Berk can change; you've just lost faith in it. The Hiccup I knew would have never wanted to fight to solve problems."

Her words don't seem to affect him as he continues to smirk. "You were all pretty relieved to stop hearing from the Beserkers, weren't you?" He says. "Don't you ever wonder what got them going?"

Did Stoick even know about the Outcasts and their dragon academy? Did any of you have any idea about Drago Bludvist, either? He didn't just attempt to train dragons—he had any army, and was only a couple islands away from arriving here. Do you really think this island would still be here if I hadn't stepped in?"

"Stepped in…?" Astrid had to ask, even when she already knew the answer.

His eyes get darker. "I took care of them. The rest are gone, they got the message loud and clear. I was merciful, not allowing Berk to be destroyed. But like I've done already, I will break this place if I have to."

How could this be the same person she'd known years ago, the one that wouldn't kill a dragon and couldn't hold a sword upright? What could have turned him into this person that just wanted death?

"Vikings _can _change, Hiccup, I know we can! You have to give us a chance; you can't think that just the one time will be enough for them! Hiccup…!"

But he's already leaving, back turned to her as she pleads after him. She calls his name again, but he doesn't turn back. What decided that he got to be the one to end the conversation?

She walks after him. "The people of Berk don't know all this! How can they know what you're trying to do? They deserve to know why you're doing this!"

He suddenly takes off running, sprinting out the uncaged door, and even as Astrid attempts to catch up, she already knows it's too late as she hears the familiar sound of wings flapping in the distance. Astrid tries reaching for her knife, but realizes she left it on the floor.

Once again, he'd left her. And once again, with so much to think about and so many questions.

She had to tell someone, put it out there or try to kill him before he could destroy their home. But he made a good point… a really good point… were the Vikings not just at fault for this war? It was true, the two species would eventually just wipe each other out. He was right—something had to be done.

But she couldn't give up on Berk. _He _was still the threat that needed to be dealt with. Even with this new information… if she couldn't convince him, she still had to stop him.

Astrid allows herself to fall back and sit on the ground. She tucks her head between her knees, completely exhausted.

.

.

.

For the first time in Berk's recent history, the island woke up to a stroke of good luck in the face of the previous night's destruction—rain. Well, not just any old drizzle, a very classic Berk torrential downpour. Most of the village spent the morning tying down anything and everything that could float away if the streets flooded again.

But after that—ultimate freedom. Dragons were notoriously known for lying low during stormy weather, which meant Berk would have a wider window to repair their broken home (Even in the rain, the extra time was better than nothing).

While the island was hard at work outside, Astrid had gathered her trainees in the Great Hall for their previously rescheduled lesson on changewing venom. But the kids still weren't having it, reminiscing about the night before and the rumour that Snoutlout had killed a monstrous nightmare.

"It was in-sane!" One of the kids is whispering (not so discreetly) as Astrid lectured, ducking his head down as he talked to Gustav beside him. "I saw all the guts and everything!"

"Blaze, Gustav," Astrid says warningly, shooting a glare down the table to the two troublemakers. "Can you _please _just focus on the lesson?"

"_Come oooon, _Astrid!" Gustav moans, flopping forward on the table. "How can you expect us to pay attention to this nonsense when there's real fighting to get done!"

The other kids murmur in agreement.

"I thought you said we could fight in the next raid!" Blaze adds in.

"I wanted to kill a nightmare!" Gustav whines.

Astrid wondered how the kids could do it all day long. Think about the same damn thing and have the same damn conversation with her every other day. All they wanted to do was kill, kill, and kill. Didn't they ever get bored?

"I told you I would speak to the chief about participating in the next raid," Astrid says. "I never said we would actually do it until I got permission."

"Well, did you ask permission?" Gustav asks, looking up at her with pleading eyes. "The village needs us!"

Astrid exhales heavily. "I will _inquire._ Now can we please focus on the lesson?" She says, motioning to Book of Dragons in front of her. They still had another 27 venoms to go.

The kids looked like they were about to protest when the doors to the Great Hall fly open, making way for a dozen or so damp—but loud—Vikings. The first crowd in for dinner, no less. The light from outside looks near-twilight through the clouds; they must have been reviewing the lesson for longer than she thought.

The trainees look up at her hopefully, coming up with the same conclusion Astrid did, and all she can do is shrug before they scramble from the table and take off out the doors. Astrid sighs, packing up the books and charts as more Vikings filter into the hall from the rain.

It was better off this way, she decided. She needed to get rid of the kids to be able to psych herself up for what she was going to do. She hadn't found the exact words yet, but… she was going to tell the group about Hiccup.

Yes, maybe they would be horrible at keeping the secret. But she did trust them, and she knew that if anyone would be able to help her with this problem, it would be them. For whatever little it was worth, their group had known Hiccup better than anyone else in the village.

She just had to hope they'd be willing to help her.

"Hey, Astrid." Snoutlout is standing over the table, fists on hips and chest jutting out like it had been all morning after his infamous kill. "How's it going?"

She looks up from the books and barely opens her mouth before he cuts her off.

"Okay, that's great, now let's talk about me!" He says, pulling out a chair before sitting down across from her. "Did you _hear _about the dragon I killed last night?" His tone suggested he thought she already did, and still he continued. "It was epic—no, legendary."

"That's great, Snoutlout."

"And the best part is, if Ruffnut wasn't already in love with me before, now she totally will be."

"Do you know where the others are?"

"I mean, come on, I'm the total package!"

"…"

"She's gotta be insane not to see all this!"

Astrid says nothing, instead allowing him to continue on his rant while she waited for the rest of the group to gather. If anything, the white noise coming from Snoutlout's mouth was helping to keep her grounded as her mind took off in worry. She was risking so much more than just a secret.

By the time everyone else had shown up, the slit of light filtering through the door faded to black and the downpour had progressed into an all-out storm. Not to mention the Great Hall had become extra packed with Vikings hoping to escape the thunder and lightning for some company. But at least the busier it was the less attention would be paid to them.

"—and that's how I decided, instead of bathing I should embrace the natural fish smell." Tuffnut finished proudly another one of his gods-awful fishing stories. "It's like my new signature scent."

"I gotta tell you, buddy, I didn't think you could smell any worse than you did before this." Snoutlout says. "But I was wrong."

But while everyone else is talking, Astrid can sense Fishlegs sneaking looks up at her every few minutes. She didn't blame him, considering his last few attempts to talk to her had gone so awry. She couldn't chicken out now; if she didn't say anything he was going to. At least if she was the one to break the news she'd be able to control their reactions.

"Guys," Astrid says very suddenly, hitting her hands against the wood and making the dishes shake. It's a bit of a dramatic move, but at least it makes everyone fall silent.

Everyone sitting at the table is giving her a strange (but still predictable) look. Fishlegs was looking at her curiously, as he often did about everything. Snoutlout was smirking, probably not paying attention like usual and thinking about something else. The twins looked utterly confused—but they often did, so it was kind of a normal look.

Astrid briefly wonders if they will ever look at her the same after she tells them about Hiccup.

Then she spills everything. She starts with seeing Toothless in the village and seeing the dragon rider. Then about meeting him the cove, and fighting him, and what he'd said to her. She explains about the arena and going back again and not finding him. By the time she reaches their previous meeting just a few days ago, she's captured their attention entirely, even when Astrid can barely hear herself over the growing noise of the hall.

She tells them about everything they talked about at the arena—and how he didn't kill her when he was going to. How he was trying to protect them while destroy them at the same time. She hadn't meant to… but as the finished the story Astrid realizes she _had _told them everything.

And for a second not recorded in history, the entire group is silent at once.

Snoutlout looks stunned. "That… that has to be a lie."

"Why would I make it up?"

"Because…" He's spluttering. "Because…"

"Are you _sure _it was him?" Fishlegs cuts him off.

"I saw his face. He knows us… it's him."

"We can't sit by here if Hiccup is going to destroy Berk," Fishlegs says, and everyone else, in their stark serious, nods.

"Can we fight a dragon rider? We can barely get the dragons." Snoutlout says.

"There's got to be a way." Tuff jumps in. "It can't be _that _different from killing a regular dragon. There's just an extra target on the top."

"Yea, but he beat _Astrid._" Ruff points out. "She's one of the best on the island."

"But it won't be just me; it'll be all of us."

Snoutlout shakes his head. "I still can't believe it. Hiccup may have been out of his mind, but he'd never be this crazy. This is just downright evil."

"You have to believe it." Astrid says. "It's all we've got."

Ruffnut looks more series than she ever has in her entire life. "Why didn't you just tell Stoick?"

Astrid runs a nervous hand back through her hair. "I just… didn't you guys ever realize they never told us what happened after they captured his dragon? They took off with it, Hiccup disappeared and we never heard of either since. I feel like, I don't know, Stoick wouldn't deal with this." She shakes her head. "I know it sounds like I'm being paranoid, but I feel like there's a part of the story we missed."

"That's paranoid." Tuff snorts.

"If this becomes public, maybe everyone can fight." Fishlegs says.

Astrid shakes her head. "If this becomes public, there will be total mayhem. He's been in the village, multiple times I'm sure, and I can prove it. He'll know exactly what's going on and what we're planning if he can just come in and out undetected. And if he knows our moves he could stop the village's plans. People will start turning against each other… At least if we keep it amongst ourselves, we have a way of catching him off guard."

When no one says anything, Astrid continues. "If I can count on you guys… we need to make a plan." She looks at them all, provides a level stare in hopes they will see her reason and help her. It was all she had left.

Fishlegs looks like he's about to speak when the doors to the Great Hall fly open with enough ferocity to send the room into silence.

A pair of Vikings come rushing through the doors. "DRAGONS OUTSIDE!" They only have to yell once before the hall escalates into an uproar as yelling Vikings and scraping chairs as the hordes inside begin to scramble together to filter outside. Despite the quick actions everyone seems a little bit confused—dragons weren't supposed to come out in the rain.

The group swivels in Astrid direction, their gaze asking the obvious: _Is Hiccup here? Did he bring the dragons?_

Of course Astrid couldn't say _for sure, _but she nods anyway and stands up, prompting the rest of the group to gather their weapons and follow as she makes for the door.

Has Hiccup really brought dragons in the middle of the storm? Could his streak of destruction not wait a few days?

Sure enough, as Astrid pushes her way outside she sees them—not attacking, but deliberately circling overhead. She'd seen a number of dragon underbellies in her lifetime, but this one was hard to identify at first. She inhales sharply as she realizes—skrill, maybe a dozen or so. They were one of Berk's most elusive dragons; no one had seen a live one in twenty years.

Despite the heavy rain, everyone is watching the sky and the skrill. Men are running to the catapults and distributing swords, but as the minutes tick by and nothing happens.

"What's going on?" Ruffnut leans over a whispers. "Why aren't they attacking?"

Astrid can't tear her eyes away from the dragons. "I don't know… but he's planning something." Her head suddenly snaps down. "Do you think this is just meant to be a distraction?"

Ruff looks bewildered. "What could be a bigger threat than a dozen skrill? He can't have anything worse than this."

"He must be in the village. He must be—I don't know—looking for something. We have to find him."

Astrid motions to the side, hoping to direct the group out of earshot so they could speak. If he were here, in Berk right now, they may be able to catch him if they worked together.

The crowd makes a noise—one of the skrill leaves the rotating circle, drifts out into the middle and hovers, face pointed downwards at the village. It screams once, and a terrifying blast of pure lightning shoots from its mouth and hits the top of a building.

The group looks frantic as they huddle together. "We need to split up, now." Astrid says as they huddle together.

"We need to take cover, now!" Stoick is yelling above the crowd, waving his arms to try and direct the Vikings. "We will be safe in the Great Hall!"

People don't need to be told twice—the Vikings start moving back inside, running to houses to grab belongings or children. It's as close to a panic as Astrid has ever seen since the speed stinger incident. The village starts to fall in together, gathering near the doors of the Great Hall as they wait to get inside.

"Where do we look?" Snoutlout asks, watching the people escaping the rain.

"The arena." Astrid says confidently. "He wants to free the rest of the dragons. Maybe his house, although it was pretty cleaned out. The armoury, maybe. Anywhere—"

"Incoming!" Someone yells, and everyone looks up just in time to see: a dragon is dive-bombing the village, flying downward at incredible speed. But this one is smaller and darker than the skrill still in the sky. Just before it enters the range where Vikings could start throwing things it juts its wings out, gliding over the entire crowd before landing around fifty feet away from any people.

"Oh my gods," Fishlegs squeaks.

Usually, the other Vikings would have attacked this dragon with fervor. But everyone is downright motionless as they see Hiccup atop his dragon, watch him climb down and pull off his helmet in one fluid motion.

The crowd gasps. The panic, the fight to get inside the Great Hall and the ominous flying skrill are forgotten as Berk takes in the image of their chief's long lost son.

Astrid is stuck, completely unsure of what to do. She'd gone all this time hiding Hiccup from the village, and now here he was for everyone to see all at once. She hadn't for a second thought he'd reveal himself after all this time.

There's movement in the crowd as Stoick pushes his way to the front. When he finally breaks the line of people, Astrid is sure she's never seen someone looking so terrified. Especially Stoick, who's gone his whole life without expressing more the bare minimum of emotion.

"Hiccup," The chief says, although she's not sure if he sounds scared or angry.

Hiccup smiles, lowering his gaze towards his father. "Hi, _D__ad._ Did you miss me?"


	7. The Girl Who Didn't Fight

**A/N: Extra-long chapter for the extra-long wait! Well, it's not that long... but it's longer than usual... so... things start to get interesting!**

* * *

When no one says anything, Hiccup continues, his tone wavering from sarcastic to biting. "Because I sure as _Hel _missed you guys." He looks up and down the rows of people. "You know, I thought the welcome party would be a little bit friendlier than this."

"You—" Stoick takes a step forward, and a bolt of lightning shoots down from the sky and singes the ground not a few feet from chief. The crowd jumps back.

"I don't have time to talk, not right now. I'm just here to deliver a message." His eyes flicker very quickly over to Astrid before moving back to his father. "This is my official warning to the people of Berk. Free the dragons from the arena, and I will spare you the time you need to leave this island. Otherwise—" He looks down the row of people. "—I will show _no _mercy. My dragons will wipe this island clean."

The crowd of Vikings bursts into a quiet murmur or whispers.

Astrid looks over at Stoick, who looks absolutely stunned. She supposed it was a lot to handle; this amount of betrayal and deception made the old Norse stories sound like children fighting over a toy right before nap time.

"Hiccup," The chief starts, and when no lighting comes shooting out the heavens, he continues. "How are you alive?" But his voice is weak; nothing like the rest of Berk was used to. Between the heavy rain and the distance between them, Astrid wasn't even sure if Hiccup had heard the question.

If he did he didn't acknowledge it. "You have three days to follow through!" He announces, before retreating towards Toothless at a leisurely pace.

"No!" Stoick surges forward, but just as the lighting rains down again the crowd behind him holds on, not allowing their leader to step out into a minefield. A couple more shots hit the ground, and Hiccup looks over his shoulder to watch the commotion.

No, no, no! Astrid knew this wasn't how it was supposed to go. He was never really supposed to show himself, not until her and the group could work out a plan.

_But you were the one who told him they should know._

Shut up.

"Hiccup!" She tries yelling over the rain and the movement of the crowd. If he was showing himself now, he meant endgame. There wouldn't be any more carelessness from him, especially with Berk now on guard. This may really be her last chance to stop him.

Maybe he was only just pretending to not hear after all, because when she speaks he once again turns around and looks at her.

"It's not too late! You can still stop this, you aren't this person!" He visibly rolls his eyes, turning back towards Toothless, who looks ready to leave.

No, this wasn't going to be the end. Astrid was the fastest of all the Vikings in the village; she wasn't going to let a little dragon fire stop her.

Leaping forward, Astrid moves towards Hiccup. The skrills are hissing from up above, and within seconds they begin shooting bright spurts of lighting at her. Astrid dodges to the left, literally feeling the heat from the lightning blast. Left again, then right, she was moving so fast that she didn't even have time to think about it, just trust her instincts not to let her get fried.

Everyone is gasping and yelling behind her. Fishlegs (late, as usual) is in the middle of yelling: "Astrid, don't do that!" Hiccup hears the noise, turns around just in time for Astrid to not so much tackle but fall right into him in one final jump.

As she gets too close to Hiccup, the assault from the sky stops. He's automatically grabbing her wrists, holding her away at arm's length. People are yelling behind them.

"Don't do this," She says, loudly even though they're just feet from each other. Somehow, rage has vanished and Astrid is finding herself nearly in tears. How could this have happened to him, to them? How and where had it gone so wrong?

"I have no choice, Astrid." He says calmly but sternly.

"Yes, you do! This is crazy, we can still fix it! You believed that dragons and humans didn't have to be enemies, what happened to that?"

"There was never a discussion." He says, pushing her away, and Astrid falls back, nearly hitting the muddy ground but catching herself right before.

"Hiccup—" She begins again, but the sound of a dominant voice overpowers them all. The chief, after finally gaining his wits, speaks.

"Berk will never surrender." He says so that everyone could hear him. "We will prepare for war!" Stoick raises a hand in the air, and the entire crowd cheers, raising fists in agreement. "We will continue the fight against dragons as our ancestors have done before us!"

This was absolute insanity. Did they all realize what they were doing? In Hiccup's fight to preserve life, and Stoick's mission to do the same, did they not realize they were just tearing it all down?

Despite all that, Astrid looks over to see Hiccup smiling again. He speaks quietly to himself, something she couldn't make out over the noise of the village, but she was sure it was something morbid enough.

That's when the crowd gains enough courage, and ignoring the threat of the skrill charge at Hiccup as a collective force.

"You don't have to do this!" Astrid yells again, to everyone and anyone that could hear her, Hiccup included, but no one is listening.

The charge is futile—Hiccup is quick to get to Toothless, and even quicker to disappear into the night.

Astrid is left standing by herself, watching as the crowd continues to gear itself up, and as the skrill disappear after the nightfury. This… this was crazy.

.

.

.

The group catches up with her as the crowd disperses back into their homes or to the Great Hall.

_What do we do now?_

_Do we still fight?_

_Should we still make a plan?_

_Is it worth it to continue now that everybody knows?_

_The adults will deal with it._

_Astrid, are you even listening?_

_Astrid, are you okay?_

_Astrid?_

_Astrid. _

_Astrid._

She gets sick of hearing them talk.

So she turns around and goes home, and no one questions it. Her parents were just as pumped by the chief's declaration, and were celebrating in the kitchen with a few of their friends when she got home. They want her to join them, to revel with them in war.

She goes upstairs to bed.

This whole thing, everything, it was impossible. Hiccup wouldn't give up, and Berk would never listen. Hiccup wasn't wrong, they were so stubborn—and it made Astrid wonder what the Hel she was going to do. She couldn't fight the dragons… that wasn't where the battle even lay. Stoick was being an idiot.

But then, so was Hiccup. Was he really going to kill _everyone_? Didn't that seem like a bit much? She knew he wanted to protect the dragons; but the Hiccup from years ago would have seen another way.

Astrid growls as she allows herself to sit on her bed. This was so, so, so, so stupid.

"Do you have a deathwish?"

The voice startles her, and Astrid quickly jumps up and spins around to face the window and the source of the noise. There he was, sitting on her sill with his back pressed to one side of the frame and his boots against the other.

This, this was something new. She'd always been the one seeking him out—and now he had come to her. What was he trying to prove after all this time?

But for some reason she doesn't feel threatened, she could tell by his stance already he wasn't there to fight her, so she sits back down on her bed, this time facing him. "Why are you here?"

"Well, I left in such a hurry, I didn't have time to tell you how incredibly stupid that move was."

"Which one?" She scoffs. "Running at you while the skrill shot lighting at me, or trying to convince you that genocide wasn't the answer?"

He cracks a half smile. "A bit of both, now that you mention it. The skrill thing I almost expected; but I didn't expect you to revert to words instead of actions. It's… unlike you."

"You don't know anything about me. We barely knew each other, and you left." Why was the having this conversation with him? She needed to do something…

"That's exactly what I thought. You're nothing like I expected you to be, Astrid."

"You know, there are half a dozen Vikings downstairs that would come up here and rip you to shreds if I just called." She says, voicing her thoughts out loud.

"I'd be gone by then, and you know that." He says slyly.

"Then did you come here to tell me you reconsidered anything I said?" She says it sarcastically, knowing full well he didn't have any intention to change his mind. Trying to convince him anything otherwise was pointlessness.

"Not quite."

"Would it help that I point out you're being just as stupid and stubborn as you accused Berk of being?"

"It's not the same thing."

"It is the same thing, Hiccup."

"You don't know what you're talking about, Astrid." He says, the smirk gone from his voice and replaced by something a lot darker. "You don't know."

Astrid exhales loudly, not prepared to argue. If he didn't want to tell her things, that was fine. But she wasn't going to keep talking to him if he didn't plan on any changes.

"What do you want?" Astrid says. "Because I don't want to talk to you, and I'm starting to change my mind about not immediately trying to kill you."

"You're not happy here," He says quickly, and Astrid turns in his direction. "And obviously you're not happy with me, either, but the least you can do for yourself is not to die with a bunch of people you don't even believe in."

Fury bubbles up in Astrid's throat. Partially because he pretty much insulted her, but a small fraction of anger was because he was right. She didn't want to be here. But she wasn't him—Astrid was loyal to her tribe, and she wasn't going to desert them because she disagreed with them. (Even if it was stupid).

"You're wrong," She says blatantly, allowing her anger to seep through her words. "I would never betray my home! I have to fight you," She stands up. "No matter what I think."

He raises an eyebrow at her. "You don't sound convincing."

"Oh," Astrid looks around for a weapon, but sees nothing close enough. Instead she just glowers at him. "I'm convinced."

He shrugs. "Then I'll see you in three days." He says, before sliding to the side and turning to face the night. He barely looks over his shoulder to her. "The dragons aren't evil, and I know you know that. Even if you're willing to fight them."

"_You're_ evil, I'm fighting you." Astrid hisses.

But he doesn't hear her as he's already fallen from the ledge and out of sight. Astrid wishes she had lunged at him when she'd had the chance.

The nerve! How could he say that about her, about them? Who did he think he was? He was wrong… just wrong.

(Even though there was a little part of her that really wasn't sure).

.

.

.

Day one of the three days 'till doomsday starts off busy.

Astrid is up early, but apparently not as early as everyone else. The rain had ceased, and the town was in all-out preparation mode: moving food and supplies to secure storage, moving groups of children to set up beds in the great hall, sharpening everything that wasn't lodged into the ground.

Astrid spends half the morning trying to round up her trainees from the odd jobs they'd been assigned by their parents. Of course she was all-for preparation, but that didn't mean they got to skip out on their lessons. If worse came to worse, (and it seemed like it was going to), she wanted Berk's future generation to be slightly less helpless than they already were.

Of course, lessons were the last place her kids wanted to be.

"Come ooooooon, Astrid!" Gustav moans, limply holding up his sword as the other teens gather around the weapons rack to grab theirs. "I want to be in the village getting ready for the fight!"

That was the reason exactly Astrid had taken her class to the arena. It may still be crowded with metal bars, but there's enough floor space to run exercises and you'd better believe they were going to get away from the commotion of the village for at least a couple hours.

"Moving boxes isn't going to make you ready to take on a dragon, Gustav." Astrid says in response.

"But I want to set up my bunk! We were going to build a blanket fort in the Great Hall!" Gustav whines.

"No way, dude!" Blaze interjects. "Pillow fort. I thought we agreed on this?"

"Pillows are for posers, you know that the blanket fort is classic!"

"_Enough, please._" Astrid says. "Can we gather round? It's time for…" She trails off, her eyes drifting to the entrance way to the arena, where a group of a good dozen full-grown Vikings are making their way inside. And they've got weapons? Why…?

"Astrid," Stoick is leading the pack, a pretty wicked looking axe in his hands. "We're going to need you to move your class out of the arena, at least for today."

Astrid looks over the approaching group suspiciously. Any reason they were here, it couldn't be good. _And_ they wanted the group to leave? It couldn't be just a coincidence that these burly Vikings wanted to get some unneeded training in right before a giant battle.

"What's going on, chief?" Astrid asks, maybe speaking out where she wasn't supposed to.

Stoick looks over the kids. "Nothing that the children need to know about."

"Now, Stoick!" Spitelout is standing by the chief's side, nudging his arm. "They're not children anymore, they're in training! Remember when our… Well, anyway, we can't let the future of the island get soft." When Stoick doesn't say anything, he turns to the teens. "Take this as a lesson in strategy, kids: we've got no more need for the dragons, so we're going to get rid of 'em."

The group of the trainees let out an exaggerated '_oooooooh'_ at Spitelout's words.

Astrid speaks up. "But the dragons were Hiccup's condition. If you kill them now, won't that give him all the reason to come earlier?"

"_Astrid," _Stoick says sternly, motioning for her not to argue.

But Astrid kind of wants to argue. The dragons didn't deserve to die in this power struggle Stoick was having with his son. "I need the dragons for training!"

"It's not up for discussion anymore." Spitelout says. "The chief has decided."

"I don't need to be spoken for," Stoick says, and Spitelout shrinks back. "And as for the training, this takes precedent. Without a cage on the arena you can't use them anyway, and until then having this place open to our enemies is a liability. We don't succumb to weakness, and I will not have these dragons being a temptation."

"You can't do that," Astrid says.

"I need you all to leave." Stoick responds quickly, pointing his axe towards the door.

"We can't kill them! We need all the time we can get!" _And it's not right! _

"No!" Gustav speaks up, and Astrid has been so preoccupied by Stoick she's forgotten the trainees were there. For a brief second she thinks Gustav would stand up for her. "I want to stay and help! I want to kill a dragon!"

Spitelout laughs. "Look at this kid! We could teach him a thing or two!"

"I don't—"

_BOOM!_

Everyone turns quickly to the source of the noise, half of the kids jumping and falling behind Astrid in fear. Gustav's sword clatters to the ground as he yelps and tips over.

From the wooden cage just behind the group, there's now a small but messy hole punched through the middle. From the other side of the door, a dragon begins madly squawking and bumping against the barricade.

Astrid turns back to the group of older Vikings with a confused look. They should have seen what happened, but they all look just as confused as she feels. What in Thor's name was that?

_BOOM!_

This time people are pointing and yelling and Astrid sees it too: something blowing right through the cage door like a cannonball, splintering a big hole, and flying through the air over their heads and out of sight.

_BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!_

The kids scream and run for the exit (as per usual) while more projectiles explode into the arena. One of them comes flying low and nails Spitelout in the face, sending him down on the floor. Now with enough weakening holes in the door, the deadly nadder comes bursting through as well, screaming like crazy and frantically running around in the arena.

More than half the grown Vikings immediately turn towards the nadder, including Stoick. With everyone else busy, Astrid finally sees it: small and purple, with already mangy teeth and alarmingly cute eyes. A little baby nadder?

It's sitting on his behind, just looking up at her, almost smiling but she can't be sure. It was… kind of adorable.

"Die, foul beast!" Spitelout, having recovered, lunges forward with his sword, and before Astrid or the dragon can do anything, the little guy is stuck through on his blade.

Astrid can't control her gasp, or her anger as she watches Spitelout move the dead baby aside. How could he? Even after all of this, they'd be willing to kill a baby?

The deadly nadder is freaking out. It probably saw what Spitelout did, and when a Viking stupidly jumps on its back, it lets out a blast of sharp spikes from its back, nearly impaling him and sending a number of other Vikings ducking for cover as the spikes rained down around them.

Astrid dodges out of the way of a few falling spikes, and decides to head towards the exit. Her trainees are waiting by the door, ogling the battle as the Vikings take on the deadly nadder. They seem desperate to win the fight, since gods forbid the nadder get away. She can't stand what's just happening, and knows she'll do something stupid if she stayed in the arena. The nadder didn't deserve this. It just wanted to protect its babies.

"Look, look!" The adults continue to battle the nadder, but the attention from the kids shift as they point towards another baby teetering around the arena. Astrid remembers counting six explosions. One baby was dead, another was here. The other four were nowhere to be seen.

"It's kind of cute!" One boy says.

"No it's not, you idiot!" Gustav leans up and knocks his elbow against the boy's helmet, making it fall over his eyes. "It's a dragon! It's evil! If it could it would kill us all!"

Stoick slides underneath the large dragon while it's distracted, running his blade along its knees, cutting large gashes and forcing it to fall over. It was basic deadly nadder 101: the nadder had no arms and relied solely on its legs and tail for protection; take out the knees and the tail would soon follow. The deadly nadder falls over, unable to stand as it continues screaming.

The baby notices. It can't walk very well, but when it sees what's happening it hobbles towards the fight, crying and moving as fast as its little legs would allow it. Astrid has to hold herself back. Even if the mother was a threat, the baby is innocent, and if it went over there it would die. Stoick or Spitelout or any of those idiots would kill it without thinking.

She should save it, she should rescue it; it was the right thing to do.

Loyalty, Astrid. You can't be on both teams.

But when it came right down to it, she couldn't watch as mother and child met their end.

.

.

.

Day two of three days 'till doomsday starts off similarly to the first.

The town is busy. Everyone is busy. Battle plans are laid out, defenses secured, and the fishing boats return with an overload of food.

Astrid's been reassigned.

(Not to a new job, she'd only be so lucky).

All plans to destroy the remaining dragons had been put on hold, at least for now. In light of recent events and the realization that the dragons could indeed lay eggs in captivity, Stoick had decided it was best they deal with one threat at a time. There were still four baby dragons loose on the island, and he wasn't going to chance even more getting out before the current ones could be dealt with.

(With the nadder dead, the nightmare escaped and the terrible terror having starved to death days ago that only left the zippleback and the gronckle in captivity, and apparently that was a manageable number. If you asked her, Astrid was sure Stoick felt guilty about the baby nadders. Something about it, she could tell he didn't like. But he didn't say anything, she didn't ask, so she went with his story.)

So now Astrid was on trap duty. Scratch that, babysitting trap duty. Somebody had to watch the teens, and somebody had to check the traps, so why not throw the two jobs together? (It was a horrible idea, she knew. If they all survived this with all their limbs intact, it would be a miracle).

The group of teens is gathered in the Great Hall, waiting for the last few late stragglers as the rest gawk over Gustav and Blaze's pillow-blanket hybrid fort. It _was_ pretty awesome.

Unlike usual, the Great Hall is full of bustling people dodging each other as the preparation continues, and suddenly amongst the noise Astrid hears her name being called and looks up to see Ruff and Tuff running her way.

"Finally we found you," Tuff says.

"Aren't you two supposed to be on the fishing boats right now?" she asks.

Ruff shrugs. "Well, we _were. _But then they told us we were," She makes finger quotes. "—'inefficient' and should just stay in the village."

"Like, we only had that fish fight once. Fourteen times, tops." Tuff adds in.

"And the scauldron only showed up a couple of times, and Yosef's burns all healed, so we don't see the problem, but whatever." Ruff continues.

"So we wanted to tell you, maybe Fishlegs and Snoutlout are busy, but that doesn't mean the three of us can't try and stop Hiccup before the fight." Tuffnut says. "Regular fighting is one thing, but we can't let him steal our home. That's not cool."

That was something she wanted to hear two days ago, before all of this commotion. "As much as I'd love to, guys, what can we do? He's not coming back, and by the time he does it'll be too late." She'd all but given up on seeing Hiccup again until two days from now.

"But just like you said, he'd come back if we had something he cared about."

Astrid shakes her head. "There's no way. All of that stuff is gone. The only thing he cares about enough is his dragons, and he's not coming back for those until tomorrow." A stomach flop at the memory.

"Well," Ruff and Tuff both share a sideways look. "What about you?"

Another stomach flop, this one backflipping up her throat. "M-me?" Her tone sounds a lot more horrified than she'd wanted it to. "Why me?"

"Well, I mean, Hiccup had, like, the biggest crush on you when we were kids." Ruffnut says. "You really never noticed?"

_Of course _she'd noticed. Hiccup had possessed many unviking-like qualities when he was younger, but a lack of subtlety wasn't one of them. She'd always known. But then she flashes back to that day she discovered Toothless in the woods and everything that had happened, and she'd always been too embarrassed to talk about it.

Now, she supposes, there was no harm in telling the truth. "I… had no idea."

"And you guys have talked a few times this year, maybe he still likes you!" Ruff says.

Just the idea of that makes her cringe. She wasn't some kind of bait he was going to come for. Whatever he felt for her in the past was the past, family ties superseded any crush, and Hiccup had even managed to cleanly cut those. This would just be a giant joke.

"I don't…" Astrid begins, but doesn't know how to finish. "That's stupid. He's not coming here. Not for me, not for anything."

"We have to try—!"

"No." Astrid says harshly, probably harder than she needs to. Maybe it was a good idea, maybe it would have worked years ago, but this was pointless. "He'd only ever come for a dragon."

"Then we'll try something else." Tuff says just as roughly. Maybe she is underestimating the twins. "If—if Hiccup is all you say he is, and he's all he's shown he is, then we can't tackle this the same way our parents did. There's got to be another way."

Astrid looks over at her trainees. If she has to choose, if she has to be honest, there is no solution. Hiccup is powerful, but he's wrong. Stoick isn't even close to as powerful, but he's also wrong. There's no one to side with, and no perspective to take. All that's left to do is defend life. And right now, at this moment, that means her family and her trainees. She has to prepare them.

"I've got to go, guys." She says, looking back at the twins. They seem disappointed. "Maybe we can talk about this later, but right now, I've got to go."

She calls her kids over, and they grab their gear in order to leave.

.

.

.

"I think we're going the wrong way."

"No way! This is right, I remember, I studied the map!"

About an hour in, and Astrid is strongly regretting having paired herself up with Gustav and Blaze. They're arguing like a married couple (which they kind of were ever since they built the fort together), and it was driving her up the wall (or more appropriately, the blanket)).

She'd paired everyone up and assigned them to a piece of the forest, making sure they checked over the area and all the traps. There were four dragons somewhere on the island, and it was better off they split up now while they were still babies. Of course if she'd allowed Gustav and Blaze to go off on their own, she'd probably never see them again.

Thus, she was here.

"You guys are both wrong," Astrid motions forward. "The next trap is straight ahead this way."

"No way!"

"Yea, no way!"

"I set them myself," Astrid grinds out. "I think I know where they are."

"But Blaze _studied_ for this. When have you ever met a smart person that was wrong?" Gustav says.

"Yea, when?" Blaze adds.

Astrid shakes her head. "That's not at all how that works. Keep walking, we're almost there."

"Notunlesswebeatyouthere!" Gustav yells so fast she almost misses it, and before she can react the pair sprint off into the woods, absolutely going in the wrong direction.

Astrid stops mid-stride. "BLAZE, GUSTAV! GET BACK HERE!" But the forest goes quiet around her, and she briefly wonders to herself why she didn't just leave the troublesome pair at home in their fort.

She continues the walk alone, grumbling to herself, until finally coming upon the small clearing she'd set up the dragon trap. And as to be expected: no Blaze, no Gustav. Idiots. (She hoped she wasn't like this in her youth, but once again she had a feeling that she was).

That's when she realizes the trap (Unlike the first half-dozen they'd checked that day) isn't empty. There was a sky-blue baby nadder hanging in a net, whining as it struggled to fight free. But of course, it was no use for the small dragon. That net was meant to hold dragons a lot bigger and stronger, let alone this little guy.

When it finally sees her it starts whimpering even more, thrashing in order to get free.

This… this was unexpected. She hasn't planned what they would do if they got this far. Would they take it back to the village or just kill it here? She runs her hand up the shaft of her axe. It felt silly to take the weapon at the time.

No one was around… maybe…

"Astrid!" Gustav's voice breaks her from her train of thought. The sound is very distant; he was quite a ways away. "_Okay, _so maybe we were wrong! Are you out there?"

Astrid doesn't respond. No one would have to know, and she'd be able to give this baby a chance. It didn't deserve to die, that was clear.

"Astrid? Astrid? Did you find the trap?"

She could cut it down, and take it back to the village without anyone seeing her. Or bring it to the beach, somewhere where they didn't keep traps and nosy Vikings were poking around. But no, this thing couldn't fend for itself. It would starve before it could learn how to fly.

"HELLO?" Gustav calls.

Could she take care of it herself? Was that crazy enough?

She had to try. She didn't have to come up with a plan right now, but she had to try. She couldn't sit in the sidelines of this.

So she goes over to the rope's pulley, and cuts it through with her axe. The net falls to the ground, landing with a thud, and the startled baby dragon fights harder against the trap.

"Did you hear that?" Blaze, not too far away now.

"Yea, it came from over there! I bet it's a dragon!"

Astrid drops her weapon and grabs the net. It's strung like a sack around the tiny nadder, which was probably better off until she figured out what to do with it. The thing looks terrified, staring up at her and whining.

"There, there! I think we found it!"

She had to go, now.

Astrid tosses the net over her shoulder, probably too rough considering there was a living creature in it, and takes off in a run in the opposite direction of Gustav's voice.

Unfortunately, she doesn't make it very far.

Before she can react, there's something grabbing onto her arm. And lifting her into the air.

_Gods, not this again!_

"HICCUP!" She screams, looking over at the large black claw that was holding her firmly in the air. They were getting higher and higher, rising above the treeline. "PUT ME DOWN!"

He leans over Toothless' side, on the opposite of where the dragon was holding her arm. "Give me the nadder, and we'll call it even!"

"NO!" she screams, swinging forward and nearly, _nearly, _kicking him in the face.

"Oh, come on!" He says teasingly. "I promise I'll put you back down on the ground, not a tree this time! Just put the net in Toothless' claw!"

Astrid looks down at the ground, which is slowly becoming farther and farther away. She would undoubtedly die from a drop like this. In her free hand, the net with the baby nadder swings in the wind. Something like this would freak out any other Vikings… unfortunately for him, she'd already had this experience.

"If you don't put me down, I'll drop the whole thing!"

Her threat doesn't seem to affect him. "You're bluffing!"

"I will so! It's just a—a stupid dragon!"

He smirks. "Alright, fine. Go ahead."

Dammit. This would have worked on any other Vikings… unfortunately for her, he knew when she was bluffing.

When she doesn't do anything, he smiles. "I thought so." And as he speaks they start to fly forward, fast, towards the water only a few kilometers away. Even with her killer grip, Astrid is struggling to hold onto the sack with the dragon in it against the wind. She couldn't do this forever,and did he really want the nadder to fall?

As Astrid watches them cross the beach and fly out over the open water, she feels herself starting to panic.

She was at his mercy. UGHH!


	8. The Girl in the Trap

**A/N: Agk, hi guys. I really wanted to upload another chapter sooner, and I literally worked on this every day, but it just took FOREVER. I'm still not totally happy with it, but I can't be so choosy. I feel like I must address some readers' concerns, so:**

**-Yea, I kind of did kill Stormfly. Whoops. But if we're being practical about it, there's a good chance Stormfly didn't make it five years anyway, being captive and all. So... yea.**

**-A couple people asked when the Hiccstrid is going to start! Ha ha, I know it feels like it's taking forever. The good news is, it starts now :) Maybe it's not prominent at first, but I've kind of got to transition them from fighting to working together to relationship. And I'm sure a lot of you guys are going to read this chapter and think I'm a total liar, BUT I'M TELLING YOU, this is the start. (Whoot whoot).**

* * *

Astrid is a warrior. She'd fought outcasts, berserkers, and almost every kind of dragon alive in years past. She'd practically led Berk through the smothering smokebreath infestation years ago. She was feared and respected by a lot of people, all at the age of twenty.

So _why_ did she feel so terrified as Hiccup flew them out over the water?

This wasn't the first time, after all. But it was the first time she'd been underneath the dragon instead of on it, and the first time she was almost sure Hiccup was a psychopath that wanted her family dead.

Gods, what a horrible situation…

"TAKE ME BACK!" Astrid screams, trying to make her voice louder than the wind, but she can barely hear herself.

Hiccup ducks his head over the side again. "Last chance, then! Give me the net now, and I will!"

"UGH, NO!"

There was water surrounding them from all sides at this point, not an island in sight. She was doomed to whatever he chose at this point. But if he'd wanted to drop her and drown her in the ocean, he would have done it already, right?

…right?

She feels the familiar sting of a rope grinding against her hand as the net slides through her fingers. She couldn't hold this thing all day…

"Hiccup!" She yells again, still unsure he would hear her. "If you don't put me down somewhere, _soon_, I'm going to drop the net whether you think I'm bluffing or not!"

He must have had great hearing, because once she finishes speaking Toothless swings left; still flying them away from the village, but hopefully not towards her death.

And that's when she sees the island in the distance—small, not the size of Berk by a long shot but still big enough, with a rocky cove and tall, untouched trees. Astrid had never been so far from home before… just a few days ago the thought of crossing the ocean alone seemed impossible.

She feels a little sick.

A few minutes later they've reaches the cliffs. Toothless let's go of Astrid's arm just as they reach solid ground, and she has to run a few steps to keep from falling on her face with the force of the landing. As soon as she's got her balance she rests the net on the floor, careful not to let it go. She's beginning to feel guilty watching the baby flail inside.

Toothless lands in front of her, and Hiccup hops off looking way too smug to make her feel comfortable.

"Welcome to Screaming Death Island." He says.

Astrid wasn't exactly sure what a screaming death is, but she didn't have a good feeling about it. "Take me back to Berk."

"Give me the nadder."

"So you can take it and just leave me here in the middle of nowhere? Yea, right." She wasn't sure where this new confidence was coming from; considering she was pretty freaking scared right now.

"Oh, come on! I wouldn't do that."

"Yes, I think you would. You're evil, remember?"

He shakes his head. "You've got it backwards again, Astrid."

It was a pointless argument, Astrid already knows that much. She stares at him, trying to think of something to say that wasn't a frustrated scream. While she's deciding what to say, he stretches his arms out and lowers himself to the ground, sitting in the grass. Toothless seems to take his cue and does the same, lying down and curling in a half-moon around Hiccup.

"What are you doing?" Astrid asks, annoyed. "You can't sit! I don't want to stay here!"

"Well, I've got nothing but time." Hiccup says, turning to Toothless. "Do you have anything but time, bud?" Toothless nods his head up and down animatedly. "See? We've got nothing else to do but wait. It's Berk, if I remember correctly, that's on a deadline."

"What about the other babies?"

"Taken care of already. Under normal circumstances it would have taken me longer, but the village has been so busy no one's really paying attention to every person walking down the street."

"Stay out of Berk!"

He just rolls his eyes.

How can he expect her to ever hand over the nadder when he acted like such a jerk? Considering he preaches about Viking pride day in and out, he didn't seem to have any idea how it worked.

But Astrid was reasonable; she knew she was going to have to do something to get off this island. The problem was that even if she had the dragon as a bartering chip, she's going to have a hard time getting returned before handing it over.

What is she going to do?

"Do you know why I named it Screaming Death Island?" Hiccup says, smiling and looking her way. (He smiled too much.)

When she doesn't respond, he continues. "After the screaming death that lives here, of course. It's kind of like the whispering death, except twice times as big, strong, and mean. I've seen it tunnel right under an island and sink the whole thing." He says, making a hand motion to illustrate his words. "It comes here, from time to time. I'm on pretty good terms with it, but I'm sure it wouldn't like to see you."

Astrid gives him a blank look.

He shrugs. "Just thought it might speed up your decision."

She feels herself getting angry. He was lying, making things up to scare her. There was no such thing as a screaming death; he wasn't going to intimidate her just because he knew more about dragons.

Before she can talk, he speaks again. "What were you going to do with her, anyway? Hide her in your room? Do you really think that was going to work, no one was going to find it?" He doesn't usually sound this sympathetic. "I've tried hiding a dragon—one a lot bigger than her—and you remember it didn't end well. You know she'd be better off with me."

Oh Hel, he was right. She was supposed to be mortal enemies with dragons, and here she was about to take one on as a pet. "Why didn't you just say that while we were still on Berk?"

"Because I can't trust Gustav and what's-his-name, and you didn't see but they were pretty much there. I think they may have actually seen us go."

"You can't trust me, either!" Astrid growls.

He tilts his head to the side, still smiling knowingly. "At least take her out of the net."

For a second Astrid is confused, then follows his gaze towards the baby nadder still trapped. "I need a knife."

He reaches to his other arm and pulls a dagger out of its sheath, tossing it her way so it landed on the grass in front of her.

She raises an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Hey, I still have a lethal dragon, here."

So Astrid grabs the knife from the floor, careful not to take her eyes off him, and starts cutting at the ropes that held the corners of the net together. The baby is still fussing on the floor, unable to get out. She's not sure what to do. Should she reach in a grab it? Just let it out? Would it bite her?

Hiccup laughs. "Just be nice to her."

She glares at him. "Don't tell me what to do."

He raises his hands in the air. "Okay, fine, dragon master."

This is crazy. Astrid sighs, trying to exhale her nervousness as she looks down at the dragon in the net. It's stopped squirming, and now it looks back up at her, curious.

Why was she doing this?

_Because, as much as you don't want to admit it, Hiccup is right. The dragons aren't bad. Now prove it to yourself. Also, if you'll piss him off a bit by being good at this, it would be a bonus._

Fine.

So, like a crazy Viking, Astrid reaches into the net. She's not sure what to do and definitely doesn't want to ask, so she waits for the nadder to make its move. She watches it, really hoping it wouldn't bite her hand off, as it seems to evaluate her.

She tries her best not to flinch when, faster than she thought they could, the baby jumps up on her arm. She drops the net, letting it fall around them, and there it is: the baby nadder perched on her forearm like an oversized parrot.

It squeaks at her, looking up with big yellow eyes. Wow… This was kind of weird.

"Ha, you're a natural." Hiccup says.

"Uh…" For a newborn, the dragon is _heavy. _Hey arm is already kind of tired from holding it, but Astrid doesn't know how to move it without scaring it off.

The nadder seems to sense her hesitance and leans forward, allowing Astrid to catch it with her other arm and hold it like a baby as it nuzzles into her top. A really big, scaly baby.

Astrid must conceal her smile.

"You still remember, from five years ago." When Hiccup speaks, she looks up at him. His infuriating smile was gone, replaced with the kind of gentle gaze she had grown used to seeing when they were growing up.

"I'm not the kind of person that would forget something like that, thank you."

"Oh, I know." He leans back on his hands, lazy, completely off guard. Now would be the perfect time to strike, the knife still being on the floor by her feet.

But for the first time since she'd been attacked by Hiccup on the cliff, the urge was… mostly gone. Maybe it was the baby dragon huddled in her arms or the fact that she was totally and completely lost, but Astrid couldn't help but feel like she understood. The dragons weren't bad, and they didn't deserve a war just as much as Berk didn't—with the right effort, this multi-generation battle could come to an end. Astrid couldn't do anything, but Hiccup knew how.

Maybe he didn't believe it anymore, but Hiccup was still good. He was just fooling himself. If he could bring war to Berk, she knew he could also bring peace.

Fighting was not the answer. It hadn't gotten anyone anywhere in four hundred years.

Astrid looks back up at him. "Why did you bring me here, Hiccup? Don't lie to me again—you didn't have to bring me here to get this dragon."

He laughs lowly. "I need you help with something, actually. And I knew you wouldn't agree unless you needed something from me."

She almost laughs with him. "Help you? What could you possibly need me for?"

"Well…" Hiccup raises two fingers to his mouth and whistles. Toothless' head perks up at the noise. Just when Astrid fears a so-called screaming death was going to shoot down from the sky, she sees them. The other three baby nadders in a variety of colours, come running up the hillside, squawking and fruitlessly flapping their little wings.

They get to Toothless first, climbing all over him as the older dragon tries to gently shake them off.

"I need to get them back home, where it'll be safe." He says, watching them.

The baby in Astrid's arms starts to squirm, and she loosens her hold in order for it to leap out of her arms and join its siblings on the Toothless playground.

So much for her edge. "So what do you want _me_ for?"

"Well, if I counted correctly, there are four deadly nadders. Toothless only has two legs with graspers, I need one arm to steer, and that leaves one baby that I can't leave on the island overnight." He says, smiling again in his irritable way.

"NO!" The nadders jump, slightly startled. "I am _not _going back with you to your evil dragon lair!"

He laughs. "What makes you think I live in an 'evil dragon lair'?"

She motions her hands at him. "Look at you! You're wearing black leather!" But she can feel herself almost joking around, and she can't believe she is. "Go get a bucket, or make two trips or teach them to fly!"

"Oh, come on. Aren't you a little bit curious?"

Of course. "No."

His mouth twitches. "I think you're curious. You're missing so much, Astrid. You know I'm right, and you want to see for yourself."

"I…" Gods, he was right. He was so freaking right that there was no way she would ever admit it to him.

But he didn't really need her help, did he? Hiccup had a dragon army—he didn't need her to transport a baby nadder. He wanted to show her. But why?

"It's your choice. I guess I could swing two trips, but then I'm not taking you home. And you know, there's still that screaming death—"

"Fine." She did have to see, for herself. If anything, she'd be able to direct Berk exactly to where Hiccup lives. "Let's get this over with."

.

.

.

Hiccup flew like a madman.

He was doing it to mess with her, she was sure. Because the first time she'd ever ridden Toothless, he'd been new to the whole ordeal. But now he's five years experienced, and kind of evil, and she felt incredibly uncomfortable with her free arm around his waist.

The babies are screaming in delight, and she thinks maybe Toothless is too, and if she wasn't holding on for dear life she would have smacked Hiccup so hard he would have fallen out of his armour suit.

There were way too many ups and down, dodging between rocks in the water, and thank the gods Astrid had a strong stomach.

She can immediately tell the destination when another island comes into view. At first it looked like any other, but this one has giant crystalline shards of ice spiking from the ground in some kind of barrier. The island seemed too desolate and the ice seemed too bright for it to be anything but a trap. Astrid briefly wonders if maybe she'd been stupid to allow this to happen.

But as they glide up the sides of the ice walls and pass over the open top, she nearly loses her breath.

It was beautiful, like nothing she's ever seen before. The most gorgeous forest, so unlike Berk's claustrophobic brush, with clear ponds and flowers and some plants that Astrid may have never seen before. And dragons, of course. There must be thousands, and in so many different breeds she's never seen before.

_What Stoick wouldn't give to see this._

Her excitement is slightly staunched by fact that she is completely defenseless against all these dragons.

It was like the nest with the red death… but somehow so much more friendly, and not with a massive dragon in the middle eating all the smaller ones.

Toothless slows, hovering in the air over a large cliff top to drop the babies on the ground. As soon as the little nadders touch the ground they start jumping up again, flapping their small wings uselessly to try and jump back on Hiccup's dragon.

Hiccup opens his arm and lets his nadder jump down, and (hesitantly) Astrid lets hers fall to join its siblings.

Toothless touches down on the ground, and Astrid takes the opportunity to finally take her arm out from around Hiccup and get down. Maybe it wasn't appropriate, but she had to check this place out. This was… something else.

Standing on the cliff drop, she probably has the best view, even better than from the sky. The trees may have gotten her attention first, but it was the dragons that she was seeing now. Nadders, nightmares, raincutters, thunderdrums—even something that looked like a zippleback with four heads. Or maybe it was a snaptrapper. She watches a whispering death whizz past. This place…

She could understand it, for the most part, why Hiccup would want to protect a place like this.

"Pretty nice, don't you think?" Hiccup, approaching from behind.

Astrid turns her head over her shoulder just enough so she could see him in her peripherals. He had his arms crossed over his chest, and he looks rather proud. The kind of proud she saw from Stoick when he was overlooking his village.

"I'll admit, it's not the evil dragon lair I was expecting." She says.

"It's not an evil dragon lair, Astrid. It's a home."

Astrid looks over the ridges, at all the dragons gathered and flying overhead. This place wasn't like anything she expected to see. Everything they knew about dragons was wrong—and if this wasn't proof enough, Astrid didn't know what would be. She turns to face him completely. "How did you find this place?"

He shrugs, a gesture she only remembered from years ago. "Some luck, I guess. A lot of exploring and some helpful dragons."

"So you've just been hanging out here for the last five years?" Astrid asks.

Hiccup lowers his shoulders. "Pretty much. It's been our home for quite a while. I lived in a bunch of spots, but this has been the…" he hesitates with his wording. "…best. We're protected here."

Astrid tries to keep her tone nonchalant. "Protected from what? Berk—"

"Berk's not a problem. Not here, at least. There are greater evils out there."

She didn't mean to, but Astrid suddenly couldn't control her need to argue. "So then why attack Berk? If they're not a problem, why are you even bothering?"

"I've told you, already. Vikings don't change. And maybe they're not a threat now, but they will be. And I can't risk that. Vikings and dragons just can't live together."

Astrid felt herself getting angry. She really didn't want to argue, particularly because she was trapped right now, but how could he be like this? What could make him believe that the only option was to kill everyone that didn't agree with him?

"But you didn't even try!" She says loudly, trying not to yell. "You could have come back, tried to show Berk how they were wrong!"

Unlike Astrid, Hiccup clearly isn't afraid to yell. "You don't know what you're talking about!"

"That's always your explanation for everything!" Astrid says. "And you know what: I don't believe you! You don't even know yourself."

Hiccup tenses up, his hands balling into fists. "Just forget it. We're done here; I'll take you back to Berk." He turns and begins walking towards Toothless.

Astrid dashes after him, forgetting for a second that he was supposed to be the enemy as she grabs his shoulder. Thankfully he doesn't react badly, and turns just enough to look at her.

"Why can't you just tell me, whatever it is? What's the difference if I know or not?" Astrid says, trying to sound sympathetic.

He looks like he's considering it. "It's none of your business."

"I think it is." She says strongly. Then adds: "I want to understand where you're coming from. Everything." That much was true.

He studies her for another few seconds before shrugging her hand off his shoulder. "It's… you remember the story about my mother, don't you?"

Of course, everyone did. It was a highly recounted tale, of Valka defending her infant son from a horrible dragon and begin abducted instead. (Although now Astrid questioned the validity of the story).

She nods.

"The dragon didn't kill her, but I'm sure you could have guessed that. This was her home first—her passion. She found me, and we lived together here. And…" Hiccup exhales, looking downward to avoid her gaze.

"She was killed by a couple of stupid trappers when she tried to free a dragon last year." He finally says. "She was killed for nothing. She was killed because this war is never going to let up." He looks up at her, his eyes dark. "It won't end until someone wins."

"I—I'm sorry." Astrid says, truly meaning it.

He runs the back of his hand against his nose. "Don't be. If it didn't happen, I probably wouldn't be doing this. And this has to happen. I have to protect the dragons, it's what she wanted."

"I know." And she did.

There's a second of silence, with them just looking at each other, when he finally asks: "So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know." And she didn't. It was becoming too hard to choose. Could her sense of justice outweigh her loyalty? "I need to stop you, Hiccup. But that doesn't make them right." She shakes her head. "This is so messed up."

"What do you expect me to do?"

"Maybe be diplomatic. Try and reason—"

"I think that might be out the window, considering I was there two days ago to threaten them per your instructions."

"Well then I can—"

"Astrid." He interrupts her. "There's no way. I've thought it through, trust me. They will always be stuck in their ways, and not everyone is going to agree either way."

"I know." And he was right. "But that doesn't mean we can't at least try."

He exhales loudly, probably as sick to death about the topic as she was. "Fine, I'll tell you what: you stay here and scheme, I'm going to go feed the bonenappers. Unless you'd like to come, of course."

Astrid almost couldn't believe what he was asking her. Go feed the bonenappers? Like, amicably? As if she hadn't tried to kill him on multiple occasions in the last week?

But she was curious, and intrigued, and above all else, willing. Willing to see what else there was, and explore this wonderful place. And most of all, willing to understand.

So they went and fed the bonenappers.

And the more she saw, the more Astrid realizes: Hiccup really was not the person she had thought he was. He was still the person she knew him as.

.

.

.

They stayed at high altitudes on the way back to Berk, gliding above the clouds and keeping themselves invisible from the ground. (It was probably better that way, plus it was an amazing sight). Astrid had to once again begrudgingly wrap an arm around Hiccup to prevent herself from falling off his dragon and into the soupy clouds.

It was a fairly windless flight, and even though she knew he didn't like it, Astrid had once again brought up their age-old argument: Berk, and what to do about it. It wasn't a heated discussion, but he was being short with her and it was getting on her nerves.

"I need more time, Hiccup. That's just it; you can't give me only a day."

"Can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Just can't."

"That's not an answer!"

He doesn't respond.

Astrid suddenly notices that the clouds beneath them transitioning from fluffy white to ominous grey. If they were flying into bad weather, Hiccup sure doesn't seem concerned. He's still focused ahead, but she wasn't prepared to fly into a storm.

"Hiccup, can we—"

Toothless nosedives.

"HICCUP!" Astrid screams, shaking him. They're falling too fast for it to possibly be safe; and even as they plummet, the ground remains hidden by fog. They're going to crash, and no one seems to be panicking but her.

"HICCUP, WHAT IN THOR'S NAME—" She's about to let out a string of curse words when Toothless levels, stretching out his wings to catch the air and stop them from falling. Astrid feels her stomach nearly get caught in her throat as her inside settle from the drop.

They continue to glide downwards until she can finally see the ground through the fog. Toothless drops the last couple feet in order to land and Astrid quickly follows as Hiccup hops off, thankful to be able to put her feet back on the ground after what had just happened.

After a near second of recovery, she turns on the dragon rider.

"What the heck was that?" She demands angrily.

"I'm sorry, Astrid." But he sounds distant, and his helmet is making him hard to read. He turns to his dragon and starts messing with the straps of the saddle.

"No, why are you and your dragon _insane?" _she yells at his back. "I thought you guys had the whole 'working together to steer' thing, why'd you let him do that?"

She hears a sound from the fog—a distant, tortured scream that came from something she couldn't place. The sound is long, maybe too long to be human, and she turns her head in the direction of the noise.

What is this place? What had they been flying over when she couldn't see the ground?

"Hiccup—" but all she sees is a flash of wings, and Toothless (plus his rider) must have backed away into the fog. Astrid feels her stomach starting to claw its way back up her throat.

"Hiccup!" She yells, but if he was there he didn't respond. There's silence and fog coming from every direction and Astrid realizes she may have just allowed herself to be led into a trap.

Why would he bring them here? She thought they had an understanding!

"HICCUP!" She yells again, louder than before.

She totally blind in the fog, and makes herself lower her eyes and focus on sound. If there was something there, she would hear it before it would see her.

"I told you I needed your help, Astrid!" Hiccup, somewhere to her right.

She begins to march in the direction of his voice; she was going to kill him. "I'm going to kill you, Hiccup! You're still a traitor, and a liar, and I'm going to kill you when I get my hands—"

Someone grabs her from nowhere, one arm wrapping around her waist while the other hand covers her mouth. But Hiccup didn't have dirty, big hands like this, or a long beard that was scratching the back of her neck.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?"


	9. The Dragon Returns

**A/N: Hello! This story comes to you straight from Queen's University, now officially my favourite place ever. It's been a hectic week or so with move-in and orientation, but I wrote through it, guys! WHOO!**

**So this is kind of a critical chapter. And although it may seem like the end it near, trust me, guys, it's just the beginning! WHOOOOO!**

**(Okay, here we go).**

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Astrid's first instinct it to bite. Her assailant's hand tastes awful, like rotten fish heads, but at least he pulls his hand away and she's free to breathe.

"OW! She bit me!" The man complains, rather loudly and right in her ear, but he doesn't let go of her waist, even as she starts to struggle. She may have been able to fight Hiccup, but this Viking is another weight class altogether. She has no chance, and she knows it.

But Astrid knew this place. She'd heard stories about it, and the people that live here. Terrible tyrants that had been rejected from every tribe from Berk to Svalbard for their brutish violence… the Outcasts. And judging by the smell, their bathing patterns were true to legend.

"How do you think she got here?" Someone else, also right in her ear but out of her line of vision.

"Who cares?" The first one says. "She looks clean, which means someone'll come looking for her. If not," he chuckles. "What's another slave?"

The other Outcast laughs in agreement.

Oh, no, no, no, no. No.

Astrid kicks her leg back, nailing her boot into the Outcast's stomach. As expected it doesn't do much but make him growl, but it's the only way she can figure to vent her anger. Astrid Hofferson was no _slave. _

How could Hiccup have tricked her like this? No… How has she allowed herself to fall for it all?

She was going to get him for this. But first… How to get out of here?

The Outcast she kicked grunts, and the other one laughs. "Well, she's a fiery one! I bet she ran away on her own!"

You have no idea.

So in true captive-captor fashion, the Outcast hoists her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. (The backside smelled just as bad as the front).

Astrid doesn't fight—she probably could cause a scene if she tried, but it would waste energy and get her nowhere. The Outcasts thought she was being placid—she thought of it as _strategic. _

She keeps track of their route, the dangers and the pathways they take to go further inland (although the fog doesn't help). She watches, paying attention to where the entrance is when they take her through a hidden doorway in the rocks. She takes note of the guards by the exits.

She didn't expect to see the dragons. This Outcast hideout was more like a prison: a maze of cages and walls and bars. There were other Vikings trapped in cells; probably prisoners of war, or maybe pirates, or quite possibly just anyone the Outcasts could get their hands on. This was the kind of place people died in. Of old age, if you were lucky.

But she never imagined they would have dragons mixed into the prison, probably two for every one human. They had nadders and gronckles and a scauldron that had clearly dried out in the musty underground heat. A lot of them were skinny and sick looking—and lot of them just looked dead. And it was the most horrific thing Astrid had ever seen, by far.

She forgets her train of thought for the moment, as she's led past rows and rows of the same terrible scene. But then she remembers why she's there and what she had to do, and she refocuses on the directions the Outcasts take as they bring her deeper inside the fortress.

Why did she get such a horrible feeling that she'd find something awful at the end of their trek?

"Oi, what's that?" The second Outcast stops walking, and turns to point towards something on the floor.

"Whatchu talking about?" The one carrying her spins around to face his comrade, which has Astrid facing the back wall. She can't see what's going on, but briefly wonders if she could use this distraction to make a break for it.

Briefly.

"AGK!" The second Outcast starts yelling. "OW, OW! GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!"

Her captor starts laughing. "Get it off yerself, ya big pansy! It's just a little dragon!"

That's when Astrid sees another one. A terrible terror with orange scales and angry eyes. It looks mad, and as it rears back to leap, she thinks fast.

"A dragon!" She yells, and as expected the Outcast carrying her spins around to look, just as the dragon jumps. It latches right on to the man's face, and as he yells out his hands automatically go to his face to try and pry the dragon away.

Astrid falls onto her back, but is barely on the floor before she gets back up. Now was her chance, now would probably be her only—

She spins around to see a wall of terrible terrors. They're lined up on the walls, on the floor, on the ceiling. There are so many of them it would be impossible to count, and she stops dead in her tracks. They blocked her path entirely… and they looked pissed.

She's about to turn around when the terrors bolt. They run straight at her, and it takes a couple seconds of cringing to realize they were swarming past her. The giant group quickly disappears behind her.

This was impossible, as well as unnatural. There could only be one thing doing this—

"Astrid."

_Hiccup._

"What did you do?" She sees him approaching from the tunnel. "No, wait. WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME HERE?"

He tosses her a knife. "I told you I needed you help."

She catches it. "To carry the baby nadders!"

"I never _asked _you to help me with that directly, you just assumed." But he's not really paying attention, fumbling with something at his belt.

"But—"

"Stop talking, Astrid, you're wasting time." He pulls out some little do-hickey, which quickly unfolds into a full-length sword. "We can talk all you want later, right now I need you to open as many cages as you can." He motions to his left, and she sees what he's talking about; a skinny-looking nadder trapped behind the bars.

She decides the argument can wait until later.

"And leave the prisoners," He mentions. "They deserve to be here, trust me."

They work quickly, Hiccup smashing through the prison locks like they were nothing with his fancy sword. Astrid had a little bit of a harder time with her knife, but she more than made up for it in rage strength.

The Outcasts they met in the hallway were down—maybe not dead, but definitely unconscious from the terror attacks.

They're only about a quarter way through freeing the dragons and people from the massive prison when Hiccup grabs her arm. "Time to go!"

"What? But we're not even done! There are still more—"

"Time to go!" He repeats, pulling her along to the same hidden doorway she initially came in from.

"We can't leave them here! There are still dragons left!"

"There's not time! Sometimes we have to make sacrifices!"

"No time?" They leap over a fallen Outcast. "No time for what?"

"There's—" But Hiccup stops suddenly, and Astrid nearly bumps into him as she sees: Outcasts, at least a couple dozen, running straight towards them yelling all kinds of profanities.

"We don't have time for this," Hiccup growls, but he reaches for his thigh to pull out another knife, handing it to her. "Keep your back to me, follow my lead."

"Hiccup, time for what?" But he doesn't have time to answer as the ensuing Outcasts reach them.

Now, on a regular day, Astrid is a tough opponent. Now, with two knives in hand, Astrid is pretty damn lethal. She swipes at the first person to get even close to her, sending them down. The Outcasts are big and brutish but not very smart, and as they approach either her or Hiccup are able to take them down.

When they work back-to-back, they are nearly unstoppable. When she tells him to duck, he doesn't ask her _why _like some other Vikings she knows. He does it, and she's able to throw her second knife into an Outcast. When the onslaught of Outcasts becomes too close, Hiccup lights is sword on fire, forcing them to jump back. When even that doesn't deter them, Astrid and Hiccup still fight.

She followed his steps to a tee, and found herself even closer to the exit than before. Hiccup slashes upwards at an Outcasts approaching from ahead. Even though they fight well, they are still far from the exit and incredibly outnumbered, at least another dozen to go. "This is going to be hard," Hiccup mumbles.

"What's going to be hard?"

But he doesn't respond, instead flicking something on the base that puts the fire out and retracts the blade. When the next Outcast approaches, Hiccup points the sword in their direction, a foul-smelling gas that looked suspiciously like zippleback gas instead shoots into the Outcast's face.

The man looks disoriented for a second, waving through the stinky cloud. Hiccup keeps spraying, now in all directions, immersing them all into the cloud. Astrid wisely holds her breath, just before Hiccup grabs her arm and is leading them both through the gas. It's too hazy to see, and Astrid has to wonder if even Hiccup has any idea where he's going.

The ground shakes in one violent tremor, nearly knocking them off their feet. Hiccup laughs as he rights himself, a kind of short little chuckle when someone saw something they really liked. Astrid allows herself to be pulled along by the dragon rider, quickly losing confidence in the idea that she had any clue what was going on.

She understands when they reach the exit and break out of the hidden prison. She nearly loses it, but she understands.

Toothless must have been waiting outside, because as soon as they meet the fresh air he comes bounding forward to meet them. Hiccup quickly jumps on, reaching out a hand for Astrid to get on as well.

But Astrid is too busy looking up, watching in awe. In the corner of her eye she can see dragons streaming from a hole in the giant rock face, which must have been the reason for the tremor. But standing on the beach, and also next to the hole (just to give some perspective) is the one dragon Astrid really never thought she'd see again: The red death.

The red-freaking-death.

She had wondered since Hiccup disappeared, what had ever happened to the giant dragon. She hadn't thought much about it, but the idea had crossed her mind a couple of times. She had assumed that since Hiccup now seemed to have control over all dragons, that maybe he'd gotten rid of the biggest threat. (Apparently there was more to dragon politics than Astrid knew).

At any rate, the red death was clearly on a mission. It begins bashing through the rocks with its arms, forcing the prison (and probably the rest of the island) to start crumbling.

Hiccup grabs her arm, and Astrid is broken out of her gape. She allows herself to be pulled onto Toothless, and as soon she's seated the dragon takes off.

As the trio cross over the shoreline and out into open water, the red death opens its massive jaw and spews a pillar of fire onto the island. By the time they're a ways out over the water, Outcast Island is up in flames.

.

.

.

"I can't believe you."

"Don't be so dramatic."

"No," She huffs. "You're so—"

"Ambitious?" He finishes with a grin.

Astrid can't understand how calm she is, considering the situation. If this had been anyone else in any other circumstance, she probably would have beheaded them. (No, that's not dramatic, it's realistic!)

But she kind of got it, as hard as it was to believe. Hiccup had set up this whole big scheme, just to free some dragons and kill some Outcasts. She could respect that, she just couldn't respect his methods.

"I was going to say—"

"Intelligent?"

"Don't make me decapitate you."

He gives her a lazy smile. They were standing on the edge of Berk, a secluded beach area that would be completely deserted at this time of night. He's got his back to the water, arms crossed over his chest smugly as Toothless splashes around in the ocean behind him.

"I did ask you for help, and you accepted."

"You should have just told me."

"You wouldn't have helped."

_You don't know that._

"And for the record, it had been my intention to come back the entire time." He finishes.

"So then why'd you even need me?" She asks.

He shrugs. "I needed to find out how to get into the Outcast hideout. I would have gone myself, but you suddenly became available…"

"That's so not cool."

"C'mon," He says playfully. "You had _a bit_ of fun. Who else can say they've successfully infiltrated Outcast Island?"

She smiles. "It definitely was… an experience. But…"

He raises an eyebrow. "But what? Not enough action for you?"

"It was a decent plan and all, but I think you probably could have done a little better with timing." She smirks. "You seemed pretty frantic at the end, there."

"The red death doesn't exactly cooperate on command. It's kind of a now or never thing."

"And dramatic, much? Who says you need to use a massive dragon to destroy an island?"

"Hey, it's called a dramatic exit."

She laughs at that, just for a second, before pinching her lips together with her teeth. No, she would not laugh at him.

He laughs at her expression instead. "Why can't you just let it go for a second?"

"Because…" There were lots of reasons, plenty of them. Hiccup was a terrorist, first and foremost. Also, he was evil. Also, he was supposed to be her enemy. But right at this second, it didn't feel like he was an enemy at all…

…and that reminded her…

"Because we're still not on the same page. You don't see me ever chuckling along with the Berserkers, do you?" she says.

He laughs at that, shaking his head. "Always the stoic warrior, Astrid."

_Because you give me no choice._

"Why don't you just finish it?" She asks suddenly, he easy-going mood gone.

"What?"

"If you have a dragon army and skrills and _the red death_ at your disposal, why are you waiting to destroy Berk? It could be as easy as that just was. So why haven't you done it already?"

He doesn't say anything, and after a second of silence he looks over his shoulder at Toothless. "We should go, I'm sure people are looking for you."

Oh crap… her trainees.

But he hadn't answered her question. "I thought you were going to be honest with me."

"I didn't say that," He says lowly, and motions for Toothless to come to the beach. The dragon comes, albeit begrudgingly, and does a little shimmy to shake the water off his fur. But the dragon also doesn't take his eyes off Astrid, immediately sensing the tension between the two Vikings.

"What else could you possibly have to hide?" She asks, realizing how personally she was taking the question. It almost wasn't just about Berk anymore… almost.

Hiccup gets on his dragon. "You'd better go home. Tomorrow is going to be busy for you."

"Hiccup!" She says, frustrated again. He couldn't keep leaving her in the dark. And she needed him to stay, she needed him to understand. She needed to understand him. This would be her last chance for good.

He moves his foot and something on Toothless clicks.

"Please don't leave." She blurts out, meaning to say something but not meaning to say _that. _"I don't—" She struggles to find that genuine part of herself that her first line came from. "—I don't know what to do. All this stuff is driving me crazy, and I don't know what to do."

Toothless doesn't leave. Instead Hiccup sighs, and moves one hand from the reigns to rub his face with a heavy sigh. "I don't know what to tell you. There's nothing you can do; nothing has changed. I still have to go through with my plans."

"You don't, and you know it."

"I'm sorry it has to be this way. If it makes you feel any better, I know I should never have come to speak with you in the cove that day. I shouldn't have gotten you involved in any of this."

"So why did you? Why did you think I deserved to see all of this, and no one else does?"

He takes a moment. "It doesn't matter. You're still one of them." He says quietly.

"_And so are you. _You're still the person that I knew. You just won't admit it!" Oh crap. She did not mean to say that. (But if anything she'd seen were true, then she was completely right. Hiccup wasn't the person he pretended to be.)

He looks up at her suddenly, like he's really seeing her for the first time. She doesn't have time to react, or do something to save herself when he suddenly takes off.

"Hiccup!" She yells into the night, but he's already disappeared, and within a few seconds she knows he's not coming back.

Oh, Hel.

They were all going to die in one day.

.

.

.

Day three of three days 'till doomsday starts off grim.

The village had been set back from their preparation plans as people had been divvied off to go look for the missing Viking-trainer. Meanwhile, Gustav and Blaize had run back to the village with a wild tale of their teacher being carried off by a dragon.

Nobody had really believed them, but as to be expected since the two boys were notorious for tall tales. It wasn't until people had started actually asking where she'd gone did the population start looking.

Astrid hadn't even thought of a cover story. She ends up rolling with the boys' story, saying she was kidnapped by a dragon and she fought her way out of its grasp near the other side of the island.

It was a hard lie to keep up with in detail, but Astrid was notoriously kickass and no one would question her at the end of the day.

(But anyway, grim.)

Everyone seems kind of frantic, running around with last-minute organizing. The Great Hall had been fully loaded, packed with supplies and weapons and food. The children would stay there (including the trainees), while the adults manned defenses on the outside, with emergency shelters set up every few buildings.

It was a good setup, and a good plan. And if it were any other Viking adversary, it probably could have worked. But this was Hiccup, and his army was unstoppable. There was no way to prepare for something like this.

And so when night fell, Astrid went to Great Hall to control the children and defend them if it ever came down to it. And the adults went outside to fight.

The village was silent, as if the night were holding its breath. Everyone _was _holding their breath. It was time… And Astrid waited, Berk waited.

Hiccup was on his way.


	10. The Boy Who Disappeared

**A/N: Whoooo... so it's been a while. If it's any consolation, university is pretty much exactly as work-heavy as everyone describes it. So, that's why all this is happening. But I never gave up on this one, I seriously worked on it every day. And now here we are! So thank you for your patience!**

**In other news, I think at the beginning of this story I said something like fifteen chapters. Well, that is totally wrong now. I went through my outline again, and I probably have another ten-ish chapter's worth on content. I mean, we gotta get to the Hiccstrid! (And then shamelessly exploit all the fluff from them that we possibly can get). **

**It's like a storm, people-I can feel it coming in the air. **

* * *

Hiccup, that jerk.

Astrid felt like some kind of peevish, scorned woman that had been stood up on the first date.

He didn't come. He didn't _come. _Who did that?

The entire island of Berk spent the night of red alert, Then, when nothing happened, the entire morning. Then afternoon. Then the ensuing night.

Astrid hadn't known _for sure _during that first night_. _But she'd noticed how deadly quiet it was outside, and figured either it had been a massive (but strangely silent) massacre, or Hiccup hadn't shown.

The latter was confirmed when the chief burst into the Great Hall a day later.

Nothing, nada.

They waited another full day. Nope. Not even a lone sheep-stealing nightmare or a single apple-abducting hobblegrunt. The village was, for once, dragon-free.

Two days later, and the great forces of Berk stand down. Adults start taking shifts on guard, while the rest go about their normal routines running the village. Some people go back to sleeping in their homes. Astrid is allowed to take all the kids (Yes, _all the kids,_ just imagine what that's like) on periodic walks so they don't go stir crazy.

Still… Hiccup doesn't come.

Astrid is able to convince the chief to send some people up to the arena to feed the dragons they were supposed to be keeping hostage. She expects those Vikings to come running back saying the dragons were missing. But no, the locks were locked and the dragons asleep.

So what the Hel was he doing?

Either Hiccup was being so strategic it was idiotic… or something had happened. Something had happened that may have changed his mind. But there's no way her little blow up at him days ago could have made him want to spare them. If anything, it seemed to piss him off and ready him for a real fight.

Which also raised another question in Astrid's mind: what if something had _happened _happened? Hiccup was supposed to be invincible, wasn't he? He had a dragon army on his side, nothing should have gotten in his way.

The thought concerned her—and that thought disturbed her.

.

.

.

Five days, no raids. About fifty percent of Berk's army has returned to normal routine, while the rest take shifts on guard. Astrid also starts taking shifts watching the kids in the great hall. The twins go out on the fishing boats again.

Astrid goes to the arena to feed the dragons in their enclosures. The dragons seem to be the only chill people on Berk. They're calm and take the food lightly.

Snoutlout makes another grand gesture towards Tuffnut, which fails miserably. He nearly loses an eye in the process, and then spends the next day or so marching around with chest puffed out and a crossbones drawn on his temporary eyepatch.

Astrid is confused and bored and annoyed.

.

.

.

One week, no raids. Close to eighty percent of Berk's army has returned to normal routine, while the rest take shifts on guard. The children now spend only nights in the Great Hall and daytimes outside (Thank the gods). Viking training resumes, although they most of the time is used practising with weapons since they aren't allowed to use the dragons.

Astrid spends some time hanging out with the group, which does manage to raise her spirits. Fishlegs does his own grand gesture (which also fails miserably).

Her parents act shifty. The village has a Hiccup-dragon-attack drill to stay on their toes. Stoick seems to be getting more and more paranoid, and it's making everyone else paranoid.

Astrid is confused. She's not sure why it's bothering her so much that he hasn't come. At least, she'd have thought he'd have come back for her with an explanation… or even at all.

.

.

.

Things had gotten very quiet in the last few days. For one, the village has almost felt like they were going back to normal as the island approached the nine-day mark of the anniversary of Hiccup was supposed to come to destroy them all. Although Stoick continued to enforce the drills and defense protocols, everyone else was already starting to forget about it.

Because the dragons hadn't come. And they hadn't come in nearly nine days. Not even an incident of a stray terror sighting. It was like… it had all disappeared.

And she'd be lying if she didn't admit that the disappearance had made her feel a little bit lonely. Because she knew so much, and nobody else would understand.

Crap… this is probably how Hiccup had felt all these years ago.

.

.

.

"Astrid." Astrid looks up at the sound of her name. Her mother is standing across the table, her thin mask of calm unable to hide mischievous eyes. "May I speak with you, for a moment?"

Astrid blinks. "Uh, sure."

Oh gods, here it comes. Her parents had been acting weird, whispering and talking amongst each other for the past week or so. They were scheming, which was a very un-Hofferson-ly thing to do. Which meant this couldn't be anything good.

Astrid's mother sits down across from her. Her mother, gods bless her, spared her daughter the theatrics that most mothers didn't when it came to 'talks'. The no bullshit attitude also ran in the Hofferson family. "Your father and I have been thinking," The older woman starts. "You and… Hiccup were friends before... well, before he left the island."

"Not really." Kind of a lie. There wasn't any reason to tell her anything more.

Her mother doesn't seem phased. "In any case, your father and I were thinking—"

Horns going off in the distance, signaling another training exercise.

Her mother scowls at the open window. "We'll talk about this later."

Astrid made sure in the following days that they really didn't.

.

.

.

Tonight, Astrid had been allowed the good graces of getting to sleep in her own bed with the house all to herself.

Of course, these were no longer the days of reckless home alone antics; railing-sliding and food-hoarding and fish-planting. All Astrid wanted to do now was sleep and try to forget another awful day of letting her brain by rotted by a thousand pre-pubescent voices and forget everything that was going on. It seemed kind of redundant, that Berk had never been more peaceful, but Astrid had never felt so hopeless.

And she could no longer deny it probably had something to do with Hiccup.

(That jerk).

Astrid is about halfway up the stairs to the loft (and her bed) when a sudden noise wakes her from her drowsy stupor. Horns—loud ones—in a deeper and darker tone than she had grown used to hearing in the past few days of training drills.

The Hiccup-is-on-his-way horn. The there's-a-crap-ton-of-dragons-on-the-approach horn. The this-is-no-joke-get-ready-to-fight horn.

Astrid stops mid-step. Nearly ten days to the date, and now he was here. She should have been running for her axe and making a beeline for the Great Hall. But she really was tired—not only in the classic sense, but just tired of all this deep, philosophical thinking.

This was the big moment, and it didn't even feel real.

After taking another (probably critical) moment, she allows her warrior instinct to take over and hikes quickly up the stairs to her weapon, and straight back down.

She's doesn't even bother to shut the door behind her—who knew if there'd be anything left to steal when she got back.

.

.

.

As it turns out, the big moment didn't feel real because it wasn't.

Yes, _exactly. _While the village of Berk had streamed out of their houses and to their pre-determined battle positions, they villagers had come to a quick and confusing conclusion: there was nothing in the sky. No dragons, no Hiccup, no nothing. It was a night as dead as any other.

What…?

Some Vikings ran off to battle stations anyway, yelling for others to follow.

Astrid didn't. Mysterious sneak attacks—this wasn't his style. Not to mention if he was planning a sneak attack, he wouldn't have been spotted in the first place. Something was going on… or it was probably just a false alarm from a watchman that had wished so hard something would come that he thought it actually did.

Astrid goes back home to enjoy the good night's sleep she so deeply wanted.

Too bad there was someone already there waiting for her.

.

.

.

Hiccup is sitting on the loft stairs. Well, lounged was more like it, since he's covered about four steps as he leans back on the top step and has his legs stretched out below him on the bottom.

She notices him instantly.

"Took you long enough," He says, grinning at her shocked expression.

Hiccup. In her house. Hiccup… not dead as she had been suspecting. There's a strange and not-totally-unpleasant sensation of what felt like her stomach unknotting.

(She doesn't want to admit why).

"What are you doing here?" She can't think of what else to ask.

He sits up. "I thought maybe you were missing me."

"I thought you died, to be honest." She scoffs.

"Why would you think that?" He looks interested, smiling faintly.

"You were supposed to be here weeks ago. And… considering how I pissed you off last times I saw you, I was sure you wouldn't be late to come destroy Berk." She says.

He stands up, jumping down the last two stairs to come stand in front of her. "I was going to," He says as he moves. "But I went to Outcast Island to finish things up, and I just kept getting side tracked. You know how dragons can get, always vying for your attention." He shrugs. "I didn't feel up to it at the end of the day."

"You _didn't feel up to it?" _Astrid feels half a smile creep onto her face. _He changed his mind. He changed his mind. But why? _"Is that the only reason?"

He studies her for a second. "What are you getting at?"

"You reconsidered."

"I didn't reconsider… I postponed."

"Yea, right!" She says louder than necessary. "Why'd you change your mind?"

He's staring at her, taking a little too long to respond. "Are your parents coming back?" he asks quietly.

"Maybe, after what just happened. Did you actually—"

"So then we should get out of here."

"What? Hiccup—"

He gracefully grabs her hand. "I want to show you something." He says, pulling her towards the back door of her house.

Toothless is lying in the grass behind her house, shuffling around and sniffing it like there was something tasty buried underneath. It seemed reckless of Hiccup to leave him out there, but the dragon's black scales kept him well-camouflaged in the night. When he sees them both he gets up on his paws, his eyes growing large and excited.

"He's happy to see you," Hiccup comments.

"Wait," Astrid pulls her hand free, stopping herself before he can get her on the dragon and into his domain. "Where are we going?"

He smiles a lopsided smile, getting on the dragon anyway. "You wanted me to be honest with you. Well, there's one more story I haven't told you yet. And… it's about time I told you."

.

.

.

They don't fly for very long. They don't even leave the island, rather, travel to the same place that now had so much meaning for the both of them: the cove.

"Uh, did you bring me out here to murder me?" Astrid asks.

He hops off his dragon, knowing better than to offer her his hand and instead giving her the space she needs to get off herself. "If I wanted to murder you, I would have already."

"Touché."

Astrid takes a look around as she helps herself off of Toothless. "So what are we doing here, then?"

He exhales slowly. "Don't you ever wonder what happened after my dad captured Toothless and shipped half of Berk on a suicide mission to kill the red death?"

Astrid is silent. In the back of her mind, she'd never forgotten that. In fact, she had decided not to tell the chief about Hiccup in the first place because she doubted Stoick's story about that day had been totally true. But until now, she hadn't really thought about an alternative tale.

"I remember you'd been listening in on the conversation I was having with my dad."

_"Dad, wait! You don't know what you're up against!" _

_Stoick had slammed the doors to the Great Hall so hard that the locks had missed and they had flown back open. Astrid peeks her head by, but didn't feel right staring right into the room, so she stands by the large doors and listens to the argument. _

_"You're not a Viking. You're not my son." Stoick says with definition, and storms out. Astrid heard his footsteps coming and presses herself against the side wall, hoping the raging chief wouldn't spot her. He's too busy yelling at other people in his line of sight to notice. _

"After I spoke to you, it was the lasts anyone had heard from you." Astrid says, watching Hiccup sit down next to Toothless in the grass.

"Not quite." He looks up at her expectantly, and knowing she had no choice if she wanted to hear the story, Astrid sits down beside him so they were seated side-by-side. When he has her attention again, he continues.

"After what had happened, I couldn't watch them do what they were doing to Toothless, so I ran off to go sulk."

"Really?"

"Yea, actually. I didn't feel like I had anyone to talk to."

"I wanted to talk to you." Astrid shrugs. "But I couldn't find you anywhere. I got the whole group together, none of us could."

Hiccup looks at her skeptically. "You did? Even Snoutlout?"

"Surprising, I know. He actually got offended when I _didn't _ask him to help at first." She looks down. "But apparently it didn't matter, because you weren't even in the village anymore."

From her peripherals, she can see Hiccup looking down, too. "I was going to, after I'd had time to burn off all my frustration. I figured there was nothing else I could do. But then, well, I think it was a miracle." He points over to the pond, gently illuminated by the moonlight. "After all the action in the arena with Toothless, no one had paid any attention to the monstrous nightmare. It must have gotten out in all the commotion, because it was right over there when I got here, drinking from the pond."

Astrid looks over at him quickly, beginning to realize what Hiccup's plan had been. "So you went after them. You tamed the nightmare and followed the boats to Helheim's Gate."

He nods. "I thought about getting you guys, I really did, but I realized there wouldn't be enough time. Toothless was leading them in the right direction, and I knew if they made it there first no one would survive. So I used the nightmare to cause a distraction. I set it loose, and the boats stopped because they could hear it on the rocks and thought it was attacking. It started a fire on one of the boats, I think. And while everyone was distracted—"

"—You tried to get on the boat Toothless was on." Astrid interrupts, connecting all the dots in her mind. _Of course. _Of course, it all made sense now. The chief hadn't just written off his son like it seemed he had. "But Stoick saw you, didn't he?"

Hiccup nods slowly. "Everyone was so concerned with the fire, I didn't think anyone would see me. But he was—well, still is—_obsessed. _I mean, just when I thought I was in the clear, I'd almost gotten the harness off, and we'd be free. And no one would have to die, because they'd never be able to make it to the nest."

"But he saw you."

"He tried to stop me, too. But then Toothless got free, and he couldn't get any closer." Hiccup's face has grown still, and he wouldn't meet her eyes. He looks at a spot above her head, then back at the floor. "And he didn't do anything, after that. He didn't call anyone over, nothing. He just looked at me, and he looked so _disappointed. _I tried to tell him, before, that nobody could beat the Red Death. But he didn't listen to me; what other choice did I have?" He finally looks up, and Astrid can see in his eyes exactly how hurt he is. She's never seen him so vulnerable. Not even in the time years ago when his physical stature made him constantly vulnerable.

"But he let you go, didn't he? That has to count for something."

"He didn't want his idiot son to embarrass him any more than I already had," Hiccup argues.

"That…" But Astrid doesn't know how to finish the sentence. It made sense. It explained so much. Why Stoick had never seemed to care that much that Hiccup had disappeared. He was the only person on the island that knew what had actually happened. He didn't get eaten by the nightfury, he'd committed the ultimate betrayal by siding with the dragons indefinitely.

"That's just another reason why I have no choice, Astrid." He continues. "It just proves what I've been saying this entire time. My dad would rather protect his honour than his son. He's not capable of changing his mind, and until dragons and humans are separated there will never be peace."

There's a long, natural bought of silence. The cove is relatively quiet, and by the sounds of Toothless' slow and rhythmic breathing, he's fallen asleep.

Gods, everything is so messed up.

"I'm sorry if I've made this hard for you." Hiccup says quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… if I really had never come to talk to you, you wouldn't be in the position. Ignorance is bliss, you know?"

Astrid looks over at him, tilting her head to the side. "I don't regret what I know. I'm not really... like them." She curls her knees into her chest, a little perplexed by the realization. "I don't want to hate you like the village does." She admits timidly.

Hiccup puts a hand on the back of his head, like he often did when he was nervous. "So… that's why I wanted to ask you… would you ever consider, maybe, coming back with me?" This time he looks right at her. She can see something excited in his eyes.

"I don't understand."

"Did you ever think about leaving here? You don't have to stay here, with them, if you don't want to. You could come back to the mountain with me, and the dragons." As he watches her puzzled look, he adds: "I mean, we've always worked well together. Would it really be that bad?"

_Probably not. _Is the first thing that she thinks to say. Hiccup wasn't the bad person he pretended to be—he was still the sweet guy she knew from five years ago—but with more worldly experience and an admirable level of combat skill. And if she had to spend the unforeseeable future with only one person, she wouldn't mind Hiccup. He was decent—and if she had to admit it, not _completely _horrible to look at compared to a good portion of Berk.

But the idea of telling him all this made her somehow nervous.

"I'd never be able to come back." She says after a long moment of contemplation.

"I know." He shrugs. "But what's the point if you can't be who you are?"

It was a loaded question.

Astrid sighs instead of answering, leaning over and resting her head on Hiccup's shoulder.

"I can take you back if you want."

"Let me think about it." Astrid says, nudging his arm with her shoulder. "Give me a couple days. It's a lot to consider."

He seems to finally exhale. "I can do that."

"Unless you come by during that time and destroy me, then the deal's off." She says jokingly.

He laughs. "I promise I'll restrain myself."

And so they sit, and breathe and listen to the forest.

And there's an unknown feeling in the air… but it feels kind of good.

.

.

.

"I can't believe she stabbed me!"

"It's a superficial wound."

"She stabbed me with a boot horn!" Fishlegs whines, limping along beside Astrid even though he'd been stabbed into his shoulder.

"It's not that bad, Fishlegs." Astrid says, patting his arm before realizing that was exactly where his wound was. He winces. "You'll be fine. Gothi will wrap it up for you and you'll be as good as new. All you really have to do is avoid work for a few days so you don't agitate the wound."

"Why can't she just like me?" Fishlegs whimpers after a silent few seconds, obviously referring to Ruffnut and her most recent attempt to ward off suitors.

Astrid sighs. "She _does _like you. If she didn't like you, you would probably be dead by now." When that doesn't seem to cheer him up, she adds, "And think of her hitting you as a sign of endearment. She does it to Tuff, she does it to Snoutlout and now she does it to you. Think of this as, like, your initiation into the club of important men in her life." It's a cheesy explanation, but exactly what Fishlegs wanted to hear.

Not surprisingly, Fishlegs perks up considerably. "Do you think so?" He asks.

"I do. And if you really love her, you're shouldn't be ready to give up so easily. You need to work for it."

The two finally reach the steps to Gothi's perch, and Fishlegs steps ahead to stand on the top stair, but pauses and turns around, blocking the way with his massive body. "Wow, Astrid, that's really insightful; and romantic."

Astrid stops, suddenly very aware of what she'd just said. That really was insightful. And too romantic, considering she's never thought of herself as any more romantic than Gobber's hook hand. Where did that come from?

She didn't know what to say. "I've never thought of myself as a—"

"Dragon!" Fishlegs squeals suddenly.

"A dragon?"

"Dragon!" He squeaks again, raising a hand and pointing to somewhere behind Astrid. Astrid turns around to see a deadly nadder standing behind her, wings slightly raised and eyes open wide.

But not just any nadder. The cute, blue-eggshell nadder she'd rescued from the dragon trap weeks ago. The same one she'd carried across the ocean to Hiccup's mountain.

Of course it was a bit bigger now, not nearly the size of a full-grown nadder but big enough to be a threat to anyone who didn't know it wasn't.

"Oh my gods," Fishlegs breathes. "Maybe if we don't move…"

The nadder squawk's non-menacingly.

Fishlegs freaks out. "Hiccup's here! He brought his dragons! Oh Thor, Astrid, kill it before the rest get here!" When she doesn't move, he continues to freak out. "Astrid, what are you doing?!"

The nadder hops forward slightly.

Fishlegs screams.

"Shut up, Fishlegs." Astrid growls, thinking quickly. Of course she couldn't kill it; that was out of the question. The poor thing was innocent, and she sure as Hel wasn't conflicted about it anymore. She pulls a knife from her belt.

"Go to Gothi's," Astrid says slowly, turning slightly to look at Fishlegs and make sure he was listening. "I can deal with this."

"I can't leave you! Here! With that!"

Fishlegs' squealing is clearly irritating the nadder, and only making it look more menacing. It hops forward again, leaning in to inspect Astrid and glare at her friend.

"You're injured, and it's just a small one." Astrid says to Fishlegs. "Just go, I'll be up in a few minutes."

He makes a sound of protest.

"Just go, already!" Her sudden outburst makes Fishlegs jump, and with another few words of protest he starts hiking up the stairs, around the curve of the mountain and out of sight.

When the sound of the stairs groaning under Fishlegs' weight grow faint, Astrid drops the knife, raising her hands in defense. She couldn't kill the nadder—there was no way she'd allow herself—but she didn't really know how to handle the situation, either. How did Hiccup deal with wild dragons? He'd never exactly described it as a science.

The nadder tilts its head down, looking at her curiously. It hops forward again, so they're only metres apart. If it lunges now, she wouldn't be able to protect herself. Astrid looks down at the knife.

No. No, she wasn't going to be like the rest of them.

The deadly nadder is the first to take action, taking the last few steps between them. Astrid stays frozen, and the nadder sets her large head on top of Astrid's and hums.

Uhhh…

After a second it takes a step back, looking at her and squawking happily. It remembered her, too. Wow. She should have expected this reaction, but she finds herself exhaling in relief.

Astrid can't help but grin. "Hello," She greets, timidly holding out a hand palm-up. The nadder seems to smile back as it licks her hand and face in one giant swoop.

"Aw, gross!" Astrid says laughingly, trying to wipe away at the thick slobber on her cheek. "What are you doing all the way over here, huh?" She asks it.

Of course the nadder can only answer with a noise, which provides no explanation at all. What_ was_ she doing back here? Of course now she looked big enough to fly by herself, but why had she come all the way back to Berk; especially when she was safely at the mountain with all her siblings?

"Why _did _you come here?" Astrid asks again, this time more to herself. The nadder makes another noise, and it suddenly makes Astrid realize how loud they are actually being. She has to get the dragon out of the open before she got caught fraternizing with a dragon and the nadder got caught being a dragon.

Astrid reaches up and wraps an arm on the underside of the nadder's jaw. She smiles when it doesn't fight her. She had to get it out of here.

.

.

.

The island of Berk was pretty much 90% cliffs, so it wasn't very hard to find a secluded area with a decent drop for takeoff.

"Go," Astrid commands, probably stretching her liberties a little too much with the dragon but not really caring. If the nadder didn't leave, someone was going to try and hurt her. Astrid points out at the water, the sky, whatever. "Go." She says again.

The nadder just looks at her, completely confused or maybe just completely insubordinate.

"You have to leave," Astrid says pleadingly. "If you don't someone might find you. I don't know if I'll be able to protect you if they do."

The nadder doesn't budge. It's not even facing the right way to fly off.

Astrid pushes at her with her shoulder. "You need to leave!" The nadder finds it amusing and pushes back, clearly outclassing Astrid in weight and forcing the Viking girl onto the floor.

Astrid rubs a hand up her face, propping herself up on her elbows and looking up at the nadder. "Gods, what am I going to do with you?"

The nadder leans down, offering her front horn to help Astrid get back up. When both are upright again, Astrid delivers her final warning to the baby. "I don't want to see anything bad happen to you. Please—" she couldn't believe she was using the 'p' word with a dragon. "—just fly away."

The nadder does its head-tilt-hum thing again. Astrid brings a hand up and pats its side.

Where could she take this thing where no one would find it?

She nearly laughs. Gods, she was about to become Hiccup circa five years ago.


	11. The Girl on a Mission

**A/N: Look at me, you guys should be proud. Actually, I think we should do a serious scientific study on if listening to the HTTYD soundtrack gives you a better work ethic.**

**On another note, let's talk social practises in Berk. There are some fics out there where the author is true to the time period when it comes to things like marriage, laws, rights etc. I respect those guys, and I respect that time, but that's not how I'm doing this fic. ****Yes, the Vikings in HTTYD resemble those of our history, but they also wear helmets with horns and ride dragons. So it can be whatever I want it to be. I'm just saying this because topics as such will be coming up now and in future.**

**(Rant over. Enjoy the chapter). **

**BTW:**** Sjofn (Shaw-fin)-Norse goddess of love and associated things. **

* * *

"Stormfly?" Astrid stands in the middle of the cove, swiveling slowly to try and spot the hiding dragon. "Stormfly?" She continues to turn around in circles.

When nothing happens, Astrid sighs heavily and puts her hands on her hips. "Oh well, I guess she's not here." She says sarcastically, turning away from the place she knew the deadly nadder was hiding in the rocks. She pretends to act surprised when the dragon jumps out at her, nearly knocking her over as it licks up her face. "Hey there, girl!" She laughs, putting her arms around Stormfly's chin just to keep herself upright.

It had been two days since Astrid had found Stormfly—as she had decided to name her—and three since she'd last seen Hiccup. Not that Hiccup's presence mattered to her or not—she was too busy taking care of the blue dragon, bringing it food and playing with it while it was staying in the cove.

She had tried to get it to fly away; it just wouldn't. It didn't want to leave, and as selfish as it sounded, Astrid was starting to really not want it to. How could anyone (herself included) have ever thought these creatures were anything but wonderful?

"Ack—okay, okay!" Astrid could barely believe this was the same dragon she'd held in her arms only a while ago. Now it was getting so big. "The only way you're going to get your food is if you stop licking me!"

The word 'food' may have registered something in the dragon, because she respectfully backs off, still looking rather excited. Astrid has a basket of fish she'd brought with her, not nearly full to the rim but the bag was getting heavier every day that Stormfly seemed to become hungrier.

Astrid pats the dragon's side as it digs into the basket. "I'd love to stick around, but I've got to go to work today, girl." She says, already dreading having to go to her job. The more time she spent in the cove with Stormfly, the less she likes the idea of what she had to teach. "I'll be back later today, though."

Stormfly pulls her head from the basket, but the weaving gets caught on her spikes. She starts squawking wildly, running around and shaking her head to get the bag off. Fish start flying everywhere.

"Stormfly!" Astrid laughs, chasing after the dragon. "Hold on, I'm coming."

.

.

.

Astrid stops at home to grab her axe before work and finds Hiccup sitting on her windowsill.

And for the first time, it's a good surprise. And totally not in a sarcastic way.

"Where were you this morning?" He asks, watching his boots slide up and down the side of the window frame with intent.

"Unlike some people, I don't have the liberty to sleep whenever I want." Astrid says, grabbing her axe form its usual spot, her back turned to him. "I don't have an answer for you, yet, if that's why you're here."

"Oh, I know. And it's not. I was wondering if you'd seen a deadly nadder anywhere around here, actually." She can hear his voice turn smug.

Astrid looks over at him, putting her free hand on her hip. "Why would I have seen a deadly nadder?"

Of course, Astrid had the option to tell the truth, here. She trusted Hiccup, it didn't have anything to do with that that she felt the need to withhold the information. But… she didn't like the idea of him taking Stormfly away, back to the mountain.

"Because a dragon went missing the other day, and it's the same one you rescued from the dragon trap. She left the mountain, and I'm a little bit worried about her. You wouldn't happen to know where she is?"

Maybe it was selfish of her, but she was becoming a little bit attached to her dragon. And if she told him where she was, he'd have just another reason to make her want to go with him.

She would tell him… in a few days when she'd made her decision.

"Nope." She shrugs animatedly. "I haven't seen a nadder anywhere. The island's been relatively dragon-free, if you haven't noticed."

"Ha, very funny. It's nice, isn't it? Dragons and Vikings, totally out of each other's hair."

Astrid walks across the room to sit on top of her bed across from him, putting her hands in her lap. He smiles at her. "I heard what you did, by the way. Pushing poor Aslog into the archipelago so you could blow the watch horn and cause a distraction."

"Hey, she was fine. They fished her out alive, didn't they?"

Astrid can't help but smile, shaking her head. "You know the entire island is on watch for you, right? They know you've been here now. Aslog saw you."

"It doesn't matter," He says with a mock mysterious tone. "I have my ways of getting around so no one will ever see me."

"How does that work, exactly?"

"That's for me to know."

"And me to find out."

"No, just for me to know."

Astrid laughs at him. "I forgot how cheesy you are."

"I have to try. Toothless is the biggest ham—he always makes me feel like a second rate comedian. And he can't even talk."

"Oh, gods." She waves a hand at him. "Don't think you're going to get to use five years of unused jokes on me."

"Alright then." He swings his legs over so he was sitting on the edge of the sill, facing Astrid directly. He leans his arms on his knees. "So what's everyone been up to, since I was gone? Have the twins devoted themselves to Loki? Does Snoutlout still win all the Thawfest games? Did Fishlegs ever go through with his diet plan?"

"Uh, no, yes and a giant no. But we're too old for the Thawfest games now, it's all the younger kids who get to do it. Gustav, Blaize—you remember them. They're all pretty horrible at it. Speaking of…" Astrid stands up, grabbing her axe from atop the comforter. "I have some horribly unskilled Vikings to train."

"Huh. I guess it never occurred to me that we'd outgrow Thawfest. It seemed like the kind of thing we'd do forever, you know?" Hiccup rests his chin in his palm. "And… how's Stoick?" The question sounds like it's really trying to be nonchalant, but fails miserably.

It seemed like an odd question, considering the less-than-positive feelings Hiccup seemed to have towards his father. Astrid stops, turning to look at him with apprehensive eyes. "He's fine, I think. A little frantic these days, what with you being back and being evil and threatening Berk and all."

Hiccup sighs. "Yea, I would have guessed as much. I realize I've caused him a lot of stress—Hel, I've been doing that since I was born. But I meant more, has he acted at all different from the last time he saw me?"

"If you're trying to pass this off as small talk, it's not working."

He grins. "I wasn't. I have a genuine interest in the topic, if that makes you feel any better."

"So what's this interest about, then? Last time I heard you have some...mixed feelings towards your dad."

"Don't ask, unless you want to become an accomplice."

She studies his smile, mulling it over but not really thinking of any other options. "I'm asking."

Hiccup chuckles darkly. "Fine. I have it on good authority that he has some kind of plan against me, and I've been investigating with… minimal results."

"Minimal as in…?"

"He's been slippery. He seems as normal as anything, but I can't go around snooping as well as I would like to, or have been able to do in the past."

"Because you pushed Aslog into the archipelago."

"Because I pushed Aslog into the archipelago _to see you._" He corrects her.

(Somehow that makes Astrid's gut turn over). When she looks like she's about to argue, he continues. "All by my own choice, of course." He adds smoothly. "Just keep an ear out, would you?"

Astrid looks at him skeptically. "Hiccup, what's the plan, here?" Her tone has become much more serious, a little bit accusing. She turns around to face him, propping her weapon against the wall and leaning against the doorframe.

"Hm?" He looks up at her. "I just said—"

"No, I mean, what's your endgame in all this? If—" Now Astrid finds herself lacking the proper words. "If I go with you or not, or if your dad has a plan against you or not, what's the plan? Are you still going to come back and… you know, go through with your plans of mass destruction?"

Hiccup runs a hand over his face, his smile faltering. "I don't know anymore, Astrid. You've confused the Hel out of me."

"Which means…?"

"I mean…" he stands up and walks over to her. "You've made me think that maybe all Vikings aren't bad. And it was a lot easier just to think they all were. Something needs to be done, I just don't know what, yet."

"At least… promise me you'll talk to me before you do anything." Astrid says.

He smiles at her. "I promise, okay? You'll be the first to know."

She smiles back. "Okay. Then I'll find some time to go talk to Stoick, see if there's anything that he'll tell me." She puts her hands on her hips. "Consider me an accomplice."

.

.

.

"He really did that?"

"Yep. A fish head on a stick. It still had the eyes in it any everything."

Astrid and Ruffnut walk side-by-side down the main stretch of the village, both on their way to their respective jobs but neither eager to get there. The two girls really were in desperate need of some good one-on-one time; being the only two similarly-aged girls in the village meant they only had each other to talk to when it came to girl stuff. (Even if neither of them liked to admit they had girl stuff to talk about).

"Well, that's great then." Astrid says, nudging her friend. "You love fish eyes."

"I know…" Ruff sighs, grabbing her shoulders. "I just… I don't know how to feel about either of them."

Astrid nods for her to continue.

"They spend so much time trying to impress me, I don't remember the last time we did anything fun. You know, don't blow stuff up _for _me, blow stuff up _with _me." She shrugs. "It was a lot easier when we were kids."

How much easier everything had been when they were kids.

"So then maybe neither of them are Sjofn's choice for you." Astrid says.

"It may not matter." Ruffnut growls, kicking the dust as they walk.

"What? Why?"

"Haven't your parents said anything to you? Don't they want you to get out of the house?"

"No—" but then Astrid remembers that day when her mother was interrupted by the training drill. So that's what she'd wanted to talk about. "Actually, I guess, yea. They haven't outright said anything, but I think they've been trying to."

"Typical. They gave the same talk to my brother, and I bet the boys got it, too. It's gonna be a frenzy."

"I think my parents would want me to have someone before I moved out."

Ruff shoots her an incredulous look. "So then how come every time I come by your house your never home? Please don't tell me you put all your free time in sharpening weapons. We _all _know you're hiding someone from the rest of us."

Astrid pushes her shoulder. "I am not! The trainees keep me busy, and we have a lot of training. These kids aren't nearly as good as we were at that age. Gustav tried to pick his nose with an axe once!"

Ruffnut laughs and pushes her back. "Okay, okay! I don't need all the details. I was just curious, that's all." Astrid laughs with her, raising her shoulder just in time for Ruff to push her back.

After they've finally managed to contain themselves, Ruff continues. "You know, me and Tuffnut could never really figure out who your type was. We kind of always figured it would end up being you and Hiccup."

Astrid nearly stumbles on the ground as she can't help but feel her cheeks heat up a bit. "N-No way! I barely paid him any attention when we were kids, and I wasn't exactly nice to him during dragon training."

"Yea, see, we thought about that, too. But we knew you'd never go for the other options. Could you honestly tell me you'd have ever had any interest in the other boys? My _brother?" _

"Have you smelled your brother?"

"My point exactly. And they would never go for you, because they knew they couldn't keep up. But Hiccup—"

"Couldn't keep up either!" Astrid interrupts. They finally reach the point where the two girls had to part ways, but they stop and stand together as they continue to talk.

"But he knew that, and he really didn't care."

"I guess…"

"I always kind of thought it would happen because he was going to be the chief, and Stoick wasn't going to let Hiccup be in charge by himself. So then he'd probably ask your—"

"You sound like you've put a lot of thought into this." Astrid interrupts again, crossing her arms and glaring playfully as Ruff.

She shrugs, grinning. "I share a room with Tuffnut, we have a lot of time to conspire."

"So you always thought I'd marry him out of obligation? You know I wouldn't—"

"Yea, yea, I didn't say it was a good theory. But then came the night before the kill ring—"

"—No, Ruffnut—"

"—and you woke me up in the middle of the night, with this insane story that you _kissed _Hiccup and you thought you had lost your mind." She leans forward and points a finger at Astrid. "And for twenty-four hours, I was right!"

Astrid covers her face with one hand. "Alright." Her voice is muffled through her fingers. "Fine, but that was a long time ago. And before Hiccup went rogue."

Ruffnut smiles devilishly. "True. But at the time, you _did _like him."

"Maybe," Astrid turns to head up the path to the arena, looking at Ruffnut from over her shoulder. "But not anymore!" she calls.

Ruffnut laughs and waves as she starts to walk in the opposite direction towards the docks.

.

.

.

The island had become dark hours ago, and since then most of Berk has gone to sleep. Ever since the raids had stopped again, so had the times of waiting until late at night for dragon attacks. Berk had gone dormant at the end of a long day, which left the street quiet and empty.

Astrid walks silently down the main street. She pulls her hood down when she reaches the front porch of Stoick's house, knowing the chief will be at home this time of the night.

She wasn't sure exactly what she would say, just that the chief would probably be more than willing to talk. Maybe she hadn't expressed it directly to Hiccup, but the chief trusted her a lot more than he let on, and if she asked he would probably tell her. Astrid was in charge of the youth of Berk, in combination with her profound ability to _control _the youth of Berk, made her a pretty important figure on the island.

She trusted Hiccup, and (despite the tidbit of information of Hiccup that had been withheld) Astrid trusted the chief. What information she decided to use and disuse was another story.

No one answers when she knocks on the door once, twice.

How could it be that he wasn't at home this late?

She hears movement from inside the house.

"Stoick?" Astrid asks, knocking again. He was in there.

The door suddenly opens. And it wasn't Stoick on the other side.

"He's not here at the moment, can I take a message?" Hiccup says laughingly.

Astrid feels her face fall flat. "What are you doing here?" She whisper-yells, pushing them inside and closing the door behind them.

"Relax, he's not here." Hiccup says, still chuckling. "My questions is: what are you doing here?"

"I—I came to talk to him like I said I would!" She pushes a finger against his chest. "You shouldn't be here!"

"Great minds snoop alike, eh?" Hiccup says, raising his hand to push down her accusatory one. "I was just looking for clues, notes, you know how it goes. I figure he's got to have something around here."

"But you weren't supposed to come here, where you could get caught! I thought we established that the whole village is looking for you!"

"Concerned, are we?" He raises a playful eyebrow.

"I—" Astrid suddenly stops, the words catching in her throat as she hears footfalls making the porch creak. "Someone's here," She whispers. "We need to go up, escape through the window—"

"I was thinking more _in," _Hiccup says, stopping her as she walks past him by looping his arm under hers and pulling her in the opposite direction. He turns to the dresser to their left, pulling the door open and pushing her inside.

"What are you doing!?" She growls, but doesn't fight him as she steps inside.

"Spying!" He says gleefully, jumping in after her and sealing the door behind them.

There's a pile of unfolded clothes on the bottom of the wardrobe, and Astrid finds herself suddenly struggling to keep herself balanced. She leans herself up against the side wall, arms on the two adjacent walls to keep upright.

It's dark in the wardrobe, apart from the slit of light where the doors met in the middle. Astrid can hear the sound of the front door fly open, and what sounds like a couple pairs of boots on the hardwood.

"—I just don't understand, Gobber." Stoick. "He was supposed to come days ago. Why didn't he? The dragons are still here, and so are we."

"Maybe we should just be grateful he's not coming, Stoick. You heard him and you saw his dragons, it didn't seem like good news for us." The two men continue to walk around the room, and by the sounds of wood scraping against wood, they were starting a fire.

"You know I had a plan, Gobber. And it would have worked, too. We would have been able to catch him."

Hiccup snorts. Astrid elbows him in the ribs.

"Nothin's fool proof. I say don't look a gift yak in the mouth."

Neither of the men say anything after that, and apart from the sounds of the crackling fire, the room is silent. More footfalls indicate they haven't yet left.

Hiccup is fidgeting, standing beside her, and he brings his hand up to rest against the wall next to her head. Astrid looks over at his hand as he moves it… then down his arm to where it was basically nestled between them, then attaches to his torso. She realizes just how close they were in that closet.

Very, very, close.

It was a very small wardrobe.

"So what were you gonna do about Astrid?" Gobber asks after what feels like an endless minute of silence.

Wait… what?

Upon hearing her name, Hiccup turns his head to look at Astrid. She can feel his breath on her cheek. Oh gods, now was the not the time to start feeling claustrophobic. She'd just never… been close to anyone like this before. And this wasn't just anyone, it was _Hiccup. _Astrid turns her head so her ear's against the wood, and away from Hiccup's gaze.

"I don't know yet. I talked to her parents a few days ago, they were all for the idea. But I'm not sure if she's ready. Or maybe I'm just not ready."

Ready? Ready for what?!

Hiccup shifts. She notices.

"Well, what about the other options, then? Snoutlout—"

"Not Snoutlout. He's obsessed with Tuffnut—"

"I think you mean Ruffnut," Gobber interrupts.

"Right, sorry, I always get the two confused. But either way, he's too easily distracted. Astrid might just be the only one. But it will have to be later, when the threat Hiccup presents has calmed down. If he does never come back, I'd consider it more."

"But now might—"

BAM. BAM. BAM.

The building starts suddenly shaking. Astrid can barely hold herself standing on the clothes, and leans against Hiccup's adjacent arm as she grasps at the opposite walls to keep herself from toppling onto the (tight) floor of the wardrobe.

The tremors come in quick, short bursts that make the shields on the walls rattle and by the sounds of it, the kettle swing and the dishware clatter.

"What is that?" Stoick yells over the pounding noise.

Hiccup seems to be also losing his balance on the pile of clothes as well, and pulls his hand back from the wall where Astrid was. Astrid suddenly feels herself jerked forward into Hiccup's chest. Oh gods, her hair—

BAM. BAM. BAM.

Hiccup seems to no longer be able to keep his balance (which in turn meant Astrid could no longer keep her balance) and pushes against the walls in a last attempt to keep upright as the shaking continued. But his hand accidentally pushes against the wardrobe door, and the two of them fall out, toppling in a pile onto the floor of the house.

Into the same room where Stoick and Gobber were standing.


	12. That Other Boy

**A/N: I'm just going to say I'm sorry in advance. You guys may not know what I'm talking about yet, but you will when you get to the ending. It may just be my most evil cliffhanger yet. I'm sorry. Please don't be mad.**

**But besides that, I thought it was about time I thanked everyone for their wonderful, wonderful support. I am so proud to be writing a story that so many people enjoy. It absolutely blows my mind the kind of readership this story is getting, so thank you, just for reading. But the story is not yet done, so I hope I can keep your attention for just a little longer!**

**Enjoy! (And I'm sorry).**

* * *

BAM. BAM. BAM.

Astrid and Hiccup fly out of the wardrobe, hitting the floor in messy a pile of arms and legs. They sprawl out over the surface, completely unable to disguise themselves enough to even think about getting away.

Astrid's hair is caught in Hiccup's armour, but she can move her head enough to look around, and when she doesn't hear yelling, she allows herself to exhale a nervous lungful of stale air.

"Where did they go?" She breathes.

"They must have gone outside to check out the noise," Hiccup says, and she's sure he sounds relieved. "Toothless knows to jump on the roof if he thinks I'm trapped inside."

"Smart dragon."

He tries to stand up, and Astrid yelps. "My hair is stuck in your armour!" She says, trying her best to stand with him, but the braid seems to have gotten caught in the shoulder joint. He puts a hand under her arm, allowing them to get up at the same time.

From the way her hair was stuck, they were forced to stay stuck together with Astrid leaning awkwardly over Hiccup's shoulder. She could barely take a step without tripping over his legs. (Why hadn't she just decided to grow out her hair with Ruffnut when she was twelve?).

BAM. BAM. BAM.

They didn't have much time before Stoick discovered Toothless.

"We go up the stairs," Hiccup says, and she nods (Ouch, bad idea), focusing on her feet as the two walked side-by-side, Astrid titled slightly into his shoulder where her braid was stuck.

BAM. BAM… silence.

They would never make it at this speed.

"Screw it." Hiccup whispers. "I know you won't like this," He says, and before she can ask why he bends down, sweeping her behind the knees and picking her up in his arms. Astrid instinctively wraps her arms around his neck, and hates herself for it.

Oh, gods. If Ruffnut could see them now. She would have never heard the end of it.

Hiccup hikes them up the stairs with time to spare, as Astrid hears the front door open again after they are well past the safety of the second floor.

Stoick grumbles something indecipherable from this distance. Gobber says something along the lines of "boys will be boys."

Hiccup carries her over to the window, but stops before they reach the sill.

"What are you doing?" She whispers to him.

"What do you want me to do, throw you out? We're kind of stuck together, here."

"Put me down," She whispers back, unwrapping her arms from his neck, prompting him to release her. "Give me a knife," She says when she's back on the ground.

He hands her a knife from his other arm slot, and Astrid tries to hold it up to the tie keeping the braid together. She realizes she'd probably stab herself in the head before she got the tie with how much she could see of it.

She holds out the knife to him. "Cut the band out." She commands, and he complies, taking the knife from her. She hears the leather snap and feels her hair fall around her shoulders.

Don't be fooled, Astrid still has a lot more hair than it seems, and even as she pulls pieces away it's hard for her to pinpoint exactly what was stuck and what wasn't.

"Can you get it out?" She asks. She can't see, but feels Hiccup using his free hard to brush through her hair, and feels a little bit of a tug when he pulls at it.

"It's tangled up in the joint," He whispers. "I don't think—"

"Just cut it."

"What?"

"Cut it off."

"Astrid, it's a lot—"

"Just do it." She says impatiently. Of course she doesn't want to cut her hair, but they didn't have a choice. Not unless they wanted to wait all night until Stoick left again, and even that way they could never fly home during the day or in this awkward position.

"If you have a big chunk of hair cut off, don't you think people will ask why?"

"I can make something up."

She hears him shuffling, and knows he's not doing what she asked. "What—"

"Give me a sec," He says quickly.

After nearly a minute of listening to him doing _something, _he pulls her over to the small bed in the room. "Don't move," He says, forcing her to sit with him.

"What—" Something heavy pulls her head back, forcing Astrid to lean back onto her elbows. "Stop moving," he tells her again, holding her shoulder.

What the Hel was he doing?

Something makes a snapping sound (That wasn't her hair). "Alright, you're good."

Astrid lifts her head and feels no resistance. Her hair was free. What did…?

Hiccup stands up, and she sees: He'd managed to get his armour off, and from there her hair free. But looking at him now, it was like seeing him as a different person. He looked so much more… human.

(Not to mention the plane of his chest was well-defined through his simple shirt… but that was beside the point).

He offers her his hand, and feeling like she was staring, Astrid taking it, looking down to avoid his eyes and fight the feeling of her face heating up. (Brain: stop thinking so much).

Hiccup grabs the armour, now in two pieces snapped at the shoulder, and stuff them under the bed.

"What…?" Astrid begins to ask, but he just shrugs. "I can't put it back on, now. The shoulder is broken—I have spares, as long as he doesn't find this, it doesn't matter."

"But—"

"I'll come back tomorrow and get it before he ever comes up here."

They go over to the window, and Hiccup climbs up on the sill, crouching down and lithely jumping to the ground. He looks back up at her, raising his hands. When he does, his shirt lifts a fraction, and Astrid once again can't help but stare at the exposed skin. "Come on, I'll catch you."

"I don't think so." Astrid says, blinking a few times to get that mental image of Hiccup out of her head so she could concentrate. She steps up on the sill and looks down at him. It wasn't that far…

"Don't be such a hardhead, you'll hurt yourself." He teases.

"Step away and let me jump before I jump _on _you." Astrid warns, waving her arm at him to move.

He steps back, folding his arms behind him.

Astrid jumps, landing perfectly by herself.

She grins at him. He grins back.

.

.

.

"I feel naked."

"You've still got a shirt on."

"It's thin."

Astrid wacks his shoulder from behind before wrapping her arms around his waist again. "Don't pout."

All thanks to Toothless, the duo had managed to make a clean getaway without Stoick or (hopefully) anyone else spotting them. Now Hiccup was supposed to be taking her back home—but the adrenaline rush was too high, apparently for both of them, and Astrid found herself flying with Hiccup and Toothless around the island… and not minding it.

She hadn't had many positive experiences with dragons (Her first ride with Toothless, the time Hiccup abducted her, to name a few), but this ride, for the first time, didn't feel like it was going to give her an aneurism or a heart attack.

The air was nice, not too cold this time of year, and just more… breathable than it was on the ground. Even though she was hesitant to admit it, Astrid felt herself enjoying seeing the view of the village in the darkness. It was a scene she had never thought she would see again.

"Having fun?" Hiccup taunts.

"As long as you don't start doing aerial 360's." Astrid warns. "You're not going to be able to bank on my strong stomach three times in a row."

He laughs. "I could teach you how to fly, if you want. Then you could fly how you want."

Astrid thanks the gods he can't see her expression or the thoughts flashing in her eyes. Her? Flying? On a dragon? That… would probably be the most amazing thing to ever happen to her.

But there was no way she could just do it. She had to choose between him or Berk, and she could not allow him to sway her decision with dragon riding.

(But how cool would it be?)

_No. _

"Maybe someday," Astrid finally says, but she kind of wishes she could say differently.

.

.

.

Astrid sleeps relatively well that night.

(Yea, she's surprised, too).

Between spending half the night soaring around Berk on a dragon and all the things that had happened last night, she couldn't believe she'd slept at all.

What was with Stoick's mysterious intentions? He and Gobber had been planning something—of which her parents somehow knew about. And if her parents knew anything about it, it couldn't be that bad for her…. Right?

No. What was really the issue was Hiccup. It wouldn't matter what Stoick had in store for her if she finally gave Hiccup an answer to his question. He'd been good, he hadn't pressed her even though it had been much longer than their agreed time limit. And Astrid had to decided, and she hadn't even started thinking about it.

Berk was her home. Astrid considered herself a loyal warrior. Her parents and friends would miss her.

But Hiccup was right—she couldn't continue on with them, like this. She couldn't teach children to kill dragons, and she couldn't sit around and watch anyone else do it, either.

Why couldn't there be a happy medium?

And Astrid couldn't help thinking about last night, when Hiccup had taken his armour off for her. And when he'd lifted his arms, and… she couldn't stop thinking about it. Or his irritating smile, or his laugh. Or how all of their adventures hadn't seemed so bad, just because he was there with her.

And her mind wanders back to the time, five years ago, when she'd kissed his cheek after he'd showed her Toothless.

This… that… it was a similar feeling. So—

Someone knocks on the door. Astrid looks up, realizing she'd been mindlessly staring at the table for the past few minutes while her porridge got cold. She puts her spoon down and stands, heading over to answer the knock.

Tuffnut is on the other side, smirking in his usual dumbstruck way.

"Good morning?" Astrid says, slightly confused. It wasn't normal for Tuff to seek her out by himself. Not that she didn't consider him a friend, but they rarely ever interacted outside of the group. If she had to guess, Astrid would have thought she was Tuff's last choice to do… anything, really.

"That's what you say." Tuff groans. "My chicken got out last night. Poor little guy, all alone, he's probably going to be lunch for some dragon if I don't go looking for him."

"So why aren't you out there?"

"Because I need your help." He grumbles. "I don't know the woods as well as you do. You know, considering you're out there all the time."

"Oh, right." Astrid seems to get her wits back, and nods. "I guess I don't have anything to do right now… did you want to go now? Just the two of us?"

"Of course I want to go now! Chicken is out there! There's no time to waste!"

"Okay, okay! Geez, let me grab my axe."

And so, in an unusual twist to the morning, the elusive Tuffnut-Astrid duo went into the woods.

.

.

.

"Chicken!" Tuff calls, hands cupped around his mouth. "Chicken, where are you?!"

They walk another few paces before he calls out again, rotating his head back and forth to look in all directions. Astrid stays silent, keeping her eyes on the forest for any signs of movement.

She couldn't believe she was doing this right now. Helping Tuff, yea, that was fine. But it felt so trivial and _normal_. It felt like they were kids again.

"CHICKEEEEEEN!" Tuff yells in her ear. Astrid winces. His yelling is getting annoying, and probably not at all attracting the chicken.

"So, Ruffnut was busy?" Astrid makes a feeble attempt at conversation to prevent Tuff from screaming again.

He goes instantly silent, a little more of an effect that she'd really wanted. "…Yes." He says after long period.

What? A one-word answer? Tuffnut only did that… never. He usually had at least a dozen words for every simple question. And most of the times he still didn't answer the question.

"Really?" Suddenly she can feel herself going from conversational to probing. Something was wrong, obviously.

He looks away. "Like I said."

"Last time I checked, you guys did everything together. And you're really telling me she wouldn't help you look for your pet?"

"We never really liked each other that much." He sniffs.

"Tuffnut…" Astrid says, awkwardly nudging his shoulder with her elbow. She hadn't really spent enough time with Tuff to know how to deal with him emotionally, but she supposed what worked for his twin worked for him. They were basically the same person. "Are you really telling me I'm your first choice for a woodland adventure? I'm pretty boring."

"She is busy."

"Doing what?"

"Being my sister." He grumbles.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that she's a girl, and ever since everyone else found out nothing's been the same."

Astrid looks at the side of Tuff's head quizzically. "I think she was always a girl."

"You _know _what I mean."

She sighs, looking down. Of course she got what Tuff meant. His sister had the same complaints—the group was feeling less and less like the group these days. And this wasn't just because of Fishlegs' and Snoutlout's persistence; it was what was coming with adulthood. They had to do their jobs, they didn't get to eat together every day like they used to, they had to… get serious about relationships. And it didn't seem to be anything childhood bonding could hold together.

"Hey. I get it. But you and Ruffnut and everyone else are still best friends. You can't hold real life against them."

He kicks the dirt as they walk. "I guess… I just miss our adventures. I miss when we got to just have fun. Who knew being adults could be such a bore? I always thought I'd get to blow more stuff up."

"But you and Ruff still have fun, you always find a way to. I've never heard of an uneventful day from the fishing crew."

He looks over at her, and their eyes meet, and Astrid can suddenly see just how sad her friend really is. "But who knows how much longer she'll be around for us to do that?"

Astrid nearly falters a step, but catches herself just in time. She couldn't let Tuff see how much that had (literally and figuratively) tripped her up. Astrid's idea of the future had always been murky—that's how it is for a fifteen-year-old ascending into the unknown. But now she was twenty, an adult, and the future was becoming more and more clear.

And she didn't like what she was seeing. Not a day-in-day-out kind of life. That was so totally not her, just like it wasn't Tuffnut.

In the back of her mind, there was a little part of her brain slowly getting louder and louder: _choose, choose, choose, choose. _

She did not want to stay for something like this kind of life. But she didn't want to leave her home even more defenseless. It could be a way out. Hiccup… but then her friends… If she went, he might stop. If she didn't… he might not.

_You have to make a choice. He won't wait forever._

_Shut up._

"She'll be around, Tuff. She always will be. She's your family, and family sticks together."

_That's true, it does. But will you?_

_SHUT. UP._

He shrugs. "I've shared a room with her my entire life. I don't know anything else."

Astrid goes silent again. Who knew Tuffnut was so thoughtful? "You're thinking about it too hard," She says, another thing she thought she'd never say to Tuffnut. "I mean, with the living conditions we face—dragon attacks, dysentery, hypothermia, outcast attacks, the plague, famine—"

"Okay, I get the idea. And it's not helping."

"My point is, alienating her will not help your situation." When he doesn't say anything, she adds: "Nothing should be able to break how close you two are."

She can see Tuff's lips press together in thought as he looks off into the distance. He finally nods. "I think you might actually be right."

"Of course I'm right. And no matter what, you'll still have—chicken!" Astrid gasps.

"Huh?"

She raises a hand, pointing to spot in the distance. "Tuff, your chicken!" He eyes move to follow the direction of her finger, and a devilish grin spreads across his face.

"CHICKEN!" He practically yells in her ear. "I KNEW I WOULD FIND YOU!" He begins sprinting after it, arms flailing as he chases his chicken through the woods. Astrid jogs behind him, but is nowhere near meeting his frantic pace.

"COME HERE!" Ruff yells, holding out his hands to try and grab his pet. Astrid can only see a wiggling tail feather just metres out of his grasp. Tuffnut leaps forward, arms outstretched, and… disappears from sight.

"Tuffnut!" She yells, quickening her pace to catch up to where she last saw him. One second he had been flying through the air, but she never saw (or heard) him land. Astrid continues to run until she slows to a stop in front of a large, suspicious-looking hole. It was roughly round and at least ten feet across, but when she peered over the edge she's relieved to see her missing friend inside.

Tuff is lying on his back at the bottom, his chicken firmly clutched in his arms, laughing.

"Erm… are you okay?" she asks him.

"I got him!" He says happily.

"Yea… and you're in a hole."

"Oh, yea, I didn't see it."

"Right… can you climb out?"

Tuff nods, standing up. "Hold my chicken!" He tosses the bird in the air, and Astrid nearly falls into the hole herself trying to catch it. She struggles to hold the bird for a moment while it squawks and settles into her arms. By the time she's gotten the chicken to calm down, Tuff's already grabbed the ledge and pulled himself out of the hole.

Astrid only has a moment to observe the clay and mud all over his clothes and hope he doesn't touch her before the other Vikings wraps her in a hug, chicken and all.

Ew…

"Tuffnut?"

"Thank you, Astrid."

"Uh, you're welcome."

He finally lets her go. "Not just for helping me find my chicken."

She knows exactly what he means, and smiles. Maybe they had a better understanding than she thought. "Of course. It's what friends are for."

After a second, she holds out his chicken. "I think it might need a bath." She looks down at her clay-covered clothes as he takes his pet. "I think we all need one."

Tuffnut groans. "And I was just starting to love my natural fish musk."

"Gross, Tuffnut, gross."

.

.

.

After everything that had happened in the woods that morning, Astrid decides it was time to do something. She couldn't keep putting off her choice. But she had to do _something. _

Astrid held the rope in her hands, apprehensively standing on the edge of the cove. Stormfly would think nothing of it if Astrid brought a rope along with the usual basket of fish. The dragon liked her—they were friends, she was pretty sure.

(She should have just let Hiccup show her.)

(No, no. She could do this by herself. If Hiccup could do it, so could she.)

So Astrid goes, and she calmly lets Stormfly eat, and she watches and waits for the opportunity to tie the rope around the dragon without it trying to eat her.

"Hey, Stormfly." Astrid says rather sheepishly, holding out a hand and hoping the dragon will understand and come. It tilts its head to the side for a second, watching her, then proceeds forward.

(What, exactly, was the natural progression for this?)

"Okay, Stormfly." Astrid says stiffly. "We're going to do something now that you may not understand… or like." The dragon just looks at her. "But it'll be for both our goods, okay? And even if it's not, it'll be good for Berk. If we do this right, maybe I won't have to choose."

Stormfly squawks happily, clearly unaware of the stakes.

"If Hiccup learned to ride a dragon, and he can teach me to ride a dragon, therefore I can learn to ride a dragon." Astrid says, something she'd been repeating to herself the entire walk to the cove. Even now, she still wasn't sure if that logic made sense. "Hiccup from five years ago wasn't nearly as adept as I am today… if he can do it, so can I."

So Astrid takes one end of her rope and gently tosses it over Stormfly's neck, being careful not to spook her. She grabs the other end and ties it to the first, making a perfect(ly dangerous) handhold on the dragon. So far, so good.

"Okay, not bad…" Astrid tugs once on the rope, checking its security. "Now all you have to do is bend down a little so I can…" She looks up at Stormfly, motioning for the dragon to follow her instructions.

Stormfly doesn't. She must think it's some kind of game, because she starts wagging her tail and backing away, as if Astrid were about a throw a treat for her to catch.

"No," Astrid takes a few steps forward. Stormfly takes a few steps back. "Stormfly, _down._" She points to the ground.

The dragon wags her tail happily.

_Come on, Astrid. It's a dragon, not a yak. You have to treat it…differently. However one does that._

"Come on…" Astrid tries to level her gaze with the dragon's. To a degree, she's sure she has her attention. "Stormfly, this is really important. We're going to go flying; don't you want to do that with me?"

The dragon goes on to squeal and jump around, not allowing Astrid to come close. She thought it was all a game.

Maybe baby dragons understand differently…?

Astrid hears the sound of flapping wings against the wind (which is most definitely not coming from her dragon) and spins around to see the nightfury dip down from the clouds, gliding towards the ground and landing softly in front of her. Toothless grins at her, but Astrid barely looks down at him before glowering up at Hiccup as he pulled his helmet off.

"Are you always lurking around these days?" She was a little disappointed to see him wearing armour again.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" His eyes flicker over her shoulder towards the jumping baby nadder. "I see you found my dragon, by the way." But he doesn't look angry, rather, mischievous.

"You knew, didn't you?"

"Of course I knew; I wasn't going to let a baby wander off to Berk and not find her. I was just curious to know if you'd tell me or not."

"So why didn't you take her back?"

"Because she's not something just to be taken wherever I want. And…" He smiles at her. "She likes you. There's nothing I can sympathize with more than the bond you have with your dragon."

Astrid crosses her arms. "She's not _my _dragon. She just won't go home."

Hiccup hops off of Toothless, unhooking himself in one quick motion. "Sure, whatever you say. Because why else won't she leave you?"

Astrid sighs, lowering her shoulders and letting her arms fall apart. She couldn't keep being hostile when Hiccup was being anything but. He wasn't mad about her hiding things from him, so she couldn't be mad about his unexpected arrival.

"Speaking of," He begins to walk around to where Stormfly was patiently waiting to play. He looks over his shoulder, quirking an eyebrow at her. "You're not possibly doing what I think you're doing."

"So what if I am?"

"Because it's not as easy as jumping on a dragon and riding off into the sunset. I nearly died learning to ride Toothless… multiple times." He bends over, grabbing a stone from the floor and tossing it across the cove. Stormfly chases after it, followed closely by Toothless as he joins in on the game.

"But you from five years ago isn't nearly as… able as I am today. I won't let myself get thrown off." Astrid repeats to him her mantra.

Hiccup nods, although his expression says he's thinking something totally else entirely. "Okay then. I'll help you get on, and you can show me how it's done."

She didn't like the sound of his tone. She knew what he was trying to do, and she wasn't going to let him. She was going to show him that she could ride a dragon.

Hiccup calls over Toothless, who in turn brings Stormfly. Astrid had seen Hiccup interact with dragon multiple times, but every time she did she was reminded of the same person she'd known and still knew: gentle and considerate and not a fighter.

He holds out a hand, and Stormfly slowly lowers her head to his side. He pets the underside of her chin, whispering something to the dragon that Astrid can't distinctly make out. Suddenly, Stormfly sits down on her haunches on the ground.

Astrid blinks. "How did you do that?"

He grins. "Practise." He tugs the rope handhold once before waving a hand in Stormfly's direction. "Now, if milady wouldn't mind getting on with it."

Astrid already knows this is a bad idea. She was either, in a highly unlikely scenario, going to be a natural (and seeing how Hiccup really was a natural, she doubted she had his ability) or was going to greatly embarrass herself.

Her pride said the former.

(Her conscious said the latter).

"Hm!" Astrid goes over to him, hands fisted, and swats his hand off the rope before putting her own there. She inspects the side of the dragon apprehensively while her back is towards Hiccup. She supposeds it would be just like riding a yak… but totally not.

Pulling the rope with a strong heave, Astrid propels her body over the side of the dragon, and then finds herself sitting on top of Stormfly. She puts her hands on either side of her to steady herself.

"Okay…" She breathes, really not sure what to do from there. She looks over at Hiccup, who is watching intently. He just shrugs.

"Stormfly…" Astrid says slowly. "Let's, um—"

Stormfly seems to finally realize there was someone sitting on her back, and simply loses it. She stands up quickly, wings spreading in panic, and starts bucking wildly.

"Whoa, Stormfly!" Astrid yells, grabbing onto the rope for dear life. But Stormfly's not having it, and not listening to her, and the dragon continues to thrash its wings and hop up and down and in all directions. "Stormfly…!" Astrid only has a chance to squeak one more time before she goes flying. She closes her eyes, not totally sure she wants to see exactly how hand she hits the ground.

Someone catches her. Gods, does she wish it was Toothless.

"Well, this is a familiar scene, isn't it?"

Astrid opens her eyes, and all conscious thought stops. As soon as she sees him, it's as if a connecting train of thought brings them both to silence. There's Hiccup, right there, holding her far too close to him and his face and his body and her face and… she can longer put together any kind of logic in her mind.

"Astrid..."


	13. The Girl and the Boy

**A/N: PFTTTTT hey, guys. *shrinks into corner* I'm so incredibly sorry I've been so... absent lately. It was an inexcusably long absence in my opinion, and I'm sorry about that. I'm just really horrible at time management. But if it eases anyone's mind, Devil has become one of my favourite projects to work on, and it would break my heart if I didn't finish it. So yea, it shall be finished. **

**Thank you all so much for your patience and your lovely reviews, they make me so happy! I'm glad I can make so many other people happy with my work, and I hope I can keep living up to that! **

**I feel like this chapter is not three-month-wait worthy, but I guess we'll find out. I feel like I just keep doing bad things to Astrid :3 I don't want to get anyone too excited, but I'm totally pumped for the next chapter-it's going to be a big stride in a direction I'm sure you all are waiting for. Anyway... please enjoy!**

* * *

She's looking right at him, and he's looking right at her, and what was probably once a teasing smirk has melted into something rather blank. She's never noticed how much his eyes looked like wet moss, fresh and bright and soft. She silently wishes she wouldn't have needed to come this close to them to realize how captivating they are. They were beautiful, and full of so much… something she couldn't exactly place. She was completely foreign to this kind of stare. No one had ever looked at her like this.

Neither of them move, at least for a few seconds. Hiccup's eyes flicker downward for a second. She wonders where he could be looking and why, and what she might see if she just—

Stormfly groans lazily in the background, and the spell breaks. This was inappropriate. They shouldn't be...

Astrid exhales slowly. "Um…" Is the only thing she can think to say, and suddenly she couldn't look into the eyes she had been so captivated by moment ago. Now it was as if her heart had stopped beating for a bit, and now the blood was rushing back and making her face burn as it soaked in all at once.

"Uh—" Hiccup blinks a few times. "Sorry, uh, are you okay?" His voice sounds different, uncontrolled and gruffer.

"Yea." Astrid looks over at the ground as Hiccup places her down on her feet. "Thanks for catching me." She says quietly, although she still can't seem to look in his direction, instead she focuses on dusting herself off to distract her brain. But Hiccup had caught her—of course she was fine and dust-free and she just looked like an idiot.

He clears his throat. "Yea, no problem." But that odd tone of voice still lingers. "It would have been pretty mean of me not catch you after I, you know, put you up there."

"Um…" Astrid is still at a loss, and the utter lack of connectivity between her brain and her mouth and the rest of her body is making her nervous. She shakes her head, trying to lift the fog from her mind and get her once-sharp tongue back in working order. He couldn't see her being like this. "Why did she throw me off? I thought she liked me."

"I'm sure she does." For once Hiccup doesn't seem so smug when it came to talking about dragons. He just seems kind of stunned, but the playful edge in his voice slowly returns as he speaks. "And I'm no expert—"

Astrid scoffs.

"What; I'm not!" His mouth slips back into a smile. "I understand dragons; I can't read their minds. But for me to even get a saddle on Toothless, it took a lot of convincing and bribery. I don't think Stormfly understood, and she got scared."

"So next time…?"

"Well, firstly, you should be the one to tame her."

"I don't know any of your tricks!"

"Which is exactly why I offered to help you yesterday."

Astrid sighs, exhausted by the conversation. The next time she'd try and fly Stormfly, she had to be more patient and cautious, period. Training a dragon was… well, it wasn't as easy as Hiccup made it look. There was more of a skill and talent to it than Astrid would like to admit.

"Why the haste, though?" Hiccup asks, almost reading her mind and he looks at her with careful eyes. "Why is it that you suddenly felt like you needed to learn to fly a dragon so urgently?"

But Astrid already knows his question is completely rhetorical. He knew why, even before Astrid herself had realized it moments ago. She'd been so caught up in not making a decision, on staying neutral until this point, that she had completely ignored what her brain and her heart were telling her the entire time.

"Hiccup…"

"You already decided a long time ago, you just can't admit it." He looks at her curiously. "I just can't figure out why."

Astrid can't look at him, instead staring at the ground by her boots. This was embarrassing enough to admit. "The only thing keeping me here is guilt. Everything and everyone is telling me to go and be free and do what I believe in, but…"

"You can let go." He says quietly, reassuringly. "I did, and I never looked back."

"But you never saw what you were leaving behind. I'm supposed to stay here to take care of my parents. And the group is falling apart. Everyone is fighting, even the twins. And they're not happy, just like I'm not, and I wonder…"

"If there's middle ground to make everyone happy." He finishes for her, his smile faded back to a serious expression.

"If I learned how to fly a dragon, I could change Berk, I know I could. I figure there's nothing wrong with trying."

He shakes his head. "It'll never happen, Astrid. I'm telling you it won't." His voice is full of warning, but it remains even and calm.

Astrid won't be calm. "You never tried, you don't know that!"

"I want you to leave, but I can't support you in this. I know what Stoick will do if he finds out about Stormfly, _just_ like he did with Toothless. You can't change their minds, no matter how hard you try, and everyone, the group, your parents—will get hurt!"

"I only need one shot. One time, to show them, and if they can't find it in themselves we leave. We can," she feels a faint smile at the idea in her mind. "fly off into the sunset and never look back."

He exhales slowly. He looks a little bothered. "I can't stay, even if you do. You know that better than anyone. They will never take me back, not after everything I've done. And I don't want to, anyway. You _can't _make everyone happy. There's no point—"

"I don't give up, Hiccup. And I will make it all work, I'm telling you. Berk will be a better place, and you'll stay here, and all the dragons will be free and everyone will be happy."

He laughs, shaking his head more animatedly. "You're crazy."

"But you'll wait?"

"Astrid..." His look transforms to pained. She can tell she's asking a lot of him, that this was never anything he wanted to do.

"I'm not asking you to do anything but wait. And if everything goes wrong, then I won't have a choice but to leave. And… I want to go with you."

Maybe it was hearing her say that out loud, because his expression visibly softens. "Okay."

"And you'll help me, with Stormfly?" She adds quickly.

"You said all I had to do was wait."

"Please, Hiccup?" She tries to look pouty, which she'd never really done in her life, but he frowns and begrudgingly shrugs his shoulders.

"Teaching only. Whatever your plan is, you do it on your own."

"Thank you," she smiles at him. Then, as more of an afterthought, she leans forward and wraps her arms around his torso. It feels like an appropriate way of showing her gratitude in a manageable way. He hesitates for a second before placing a hand on her back and holding her to him.

It's a nice, warm, sweet kind of embrace, and when Astrid pulls away from Hiccup he's smiling.

That smile quickly goes from amiable to nefarious. "So, if you're going to learn to ride a dragon… well, we're going to need a few things."

.

.

.

"Good evening, Astrid!"

Astrid looks up at the sound of that voice, instantly noticing Gobber limping down the street towards her, waving.

Astrid waves back, right before kicking her heel against the door behind her.

_Time to go, Hiccup. I hope you got everything you were looking for. _

She squares herself in front of the doorway, making sure to take up enough space not to allow anyone to slip by. This would especially be effective on Gobber, considering he most definitely needed the entire entryway to even get into the blacksmith's shop.

"Whatch'a up to this late?" He asks as he comes into speaking distance. "I hope ya know I closed up the shop hours ago, I already put the coals out."

Astrid nods. "Oh, yea, I'm just waiting here for Ruffnut… we're meeting here."

_He'd better be finished in there._

"Eh? Meeting for what?"

"Um—you know, _girl _stuff."

"I'm not following."

Gods, _men. _

"Don't worry about it. If you want, I can wait somewhere—" Astrid feigns stepping out of the way, and Gobber puts a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"Don't be silly, of course you can wait here. It's public space, I wouldn't want to stop you two from your girl stuff." He says casually, and Astrid feels the need to face palm.

"Thanks, I—" Astrid freezes mid-sentence as she sees something _odd _flicker across Gobber's face. Usually she wouldn't think twice about it—Gobber was all kinds of odd—but this was a different kind of look. Something… serious?

"Is everything alright?"

"Hm?" His usual gleeful smirk returns. "Oh, yea, of course. Just thinking."

"Anything worth sharing?"

The older Viking shrugs a shoulder. "It's nothing important, just the wandering thoughts of an old man."

_Yea, right. _Astrid remembers (nervously) hiding in Stoick's house just the other day and listening to him and Gobber discuss something suspicious—something that most definitely involved Astrid herself. This was that look, she knew it. But for once, Gobber was showing incredible skill in masking his thoughts as he changes the topic to dragon training.

They end up discussing the little ones for a bit, comparing the kids' strengths and weaknesses, as well as laughing over Gustav and Blaize's most recent failed escapades. But Astrid isn't with him fully, the back of her mind evaluating over and over what their words could have meant from that day.

_I talked to her parents a few days ago, they were all for the idea. But I'm not sure if she's ready._

Stoick's words whirl in her head as she nods at Gobber without really listening. What had he been talking about? Ready for what, exactly?

After the amount of time Hiccup had told her to give him, Astrid excuses herself, telling Gobber than Ruffnut must have forgotten about their plans. She begins to walk away after that, waiting for the sound of the door to the blacksmith's creak open and closed. A moment later, Hiccup runs up next to her, a large hunk of leather and some other supplies cradled in his arms.

What could the chief have possibly have hiding from her? It couldn't be anything good if they were waiting this long to tell her.

"Hey, Astrid?" Hiccup says, glancing her way from behind his pile of stuff.

"Yea?" She's looking out into the distance as Stoick's words circulate in her head over and over. Was any amount of thinking going to make this make sense?

"Would you, uh, mind taking some of this stuff?"

"Hm?"

"It's all really heavy, you see…"

"Uh…"

"I'd ask if you were okay, but then I think that would be undermining the fact that I think my arms are about to give out…"

"Sorry," Astrid looks over, reaching out and plucking a number things from the pile in Hiccup's arms. "I was just thinking."

"About?"

"Remember what Stoick said the other day, about me being the only person that could do something?"

"Yea," He fidgets, adjusting the lighter pile in his arms.

"I don't know, I just don't understand what it's about. What could he need me for?"

"Does it really matter?" Hiccup asks, and the words are a shock enough that Astrid turns her head in his direction to look at the side of his face.

Did it matter? No, it didn't at all. Whatever Stoick's plans, it wouldn't matter in a few days, one way or another. It didn't, not even a little bit.

Astrid feels a small wave of relief seep into her belly. "Yea, you're right. I shouldn't even worry about it." She feels herself smile apprehensively.

"I'm never wrong, you know." He says playfully.

(Except, as they would both figure out later, that time he was. Really, really, wrong).

Astrid laughs lightly.

.

.

.

"YEA-HA-HA!"

"As—holy Thor, slow down before you hit a tree!"

Astrid had never felt so free in her life.

(Which wasn't saying much, since before she'd discovered Hiccup was alive her idea of freedom was liberating herself from dragons by chopping them into bits).

But somewhere in between reaching for the stars and skimming the ground by a hair's width did Astrid redefine her meaning of death-defying and thrilling. Sure, she'd ridden a dragon before in various forms of glorified kidnapping, but she'd never had _this. _This… this…

Now she got it, really. Why Hiccup was so addicted to his dragon, to all the reckless action and unnecessary treason against the tribe.

"Astrid!"

The thing was, Hiccup had always described his first few flight attempts with Toothless as timid, cautious, experimental. He'd been justly nervous about jumping on the back of a dragon, especially since no one had ever done so before. Even now, as a newly transformed person, Hiccup warned her to be cautious. But Astrid was still the same person from five years ago… and she still had little regard for any of those things.

Astrid pulls quickly on Stormfly's reigns, stopping their quick descent to have them hover over the treeline. Stormfly is still small, a lot smaller than Toothless, and her wings flap somewhat frantically to keep them airborne. Despite the extra effort she still seems eager to get off the ground again.

"We've got it under control!" Astrid yells towards the ground where Toothless is curled up against the ground and Hiccup is lying against him, looking up at her with a look of half-worry half-amusement. It was cute.

"The fact that you think so is what worries me!"

Stormfly swoops downwards, spreading her wings to catch the air as they lightly touch down on the ground. "You worry too much." She teases, patting Stormfly's neck as the dragon hums. They'd waited until dark to start practising so they wouldn't be seen. Now it was the middle of the night and Astrid had never been so awake, excited, especially at this time. Maybe she was just in shock.

"It's funny, I never had a worry in the world before I found you on that clifftop."

"Isn't that strange," She grins at him as she lithely slides off of Stormfly. "Neither did I."

He smiles back at her, crossing his arms and settling into Toothless' side. "You like the saddle, then?"

"Well, it's not the _best _dragon saddle I've ever had…"

He rolls his eyes. "You're too funny."

She's the one who laughs instead, sitting down next to Hiccup to rest her legs. She's too pumped to lean back, her pupils shot and her breathing still jagged.

"You look happy." He comments.

Her senses are still on edge, and she turns quickly to look at him. "How do you get used to something like that?"

He grins are her lazily. "You don't. It's kind of addicting, huh?"

She nods frantically. "Yea, gods, yea. That was—" She notices his expression. "Are you falling asleep?" Sleep… right now, sleep is totally inconceivable. Astrid wants to go again. Keep going. She wasn't tired; didn't want to be.

"Do you even know what time it is?"

"Who cares? You're a transnational dragon terrorist, you don't need sleep!"

He chuckles drowsily. "I may be a transnational dragon terrorist, but I still have a bed time." He compliments the sentence with a yawn. "Besides, maybe if you'd done some _real _tricks with Stormfly, I wouldn't have gotten so bored watching you."

"_What? _What do you mean? I want to learn tricks!"

He yawns again, closing his eyes. "Tomorrow." He says firmly.

Astrid shakes his shoulder rather violently. "No! Are you really going to go to sleep right here?"

"Why not?"

"It's the middle of the forest!"

"Us transnational dragon terrorists don't need many comforts. I spent plenty of nights living in less than adequate conditions, you know." He murmurs rather finally.

"Hm." Astrid folds her hands in her lap, finally leaning back against Toothless. She still feels breathless, but leaning against the dragon and feeling his slow and rhythmic breathing forces her to calm down. Toothless is asleep. She looks over and sees Stormfly has folded her wings in and tucked her head underneath one, signally the same thing. Obviously it's not the same kind of rush for dragons as it is humans.

Astrid looks up at the stars, sliding her shoulder upward so Toothless's side would support her neck in that position. She should go home.

"Do you think your plan is going to work?" She hears Hiccup whisper, and her head snaps in his direction to see him looking at her half-attentively.

"Do you really care?"

He smiles drowsily. "Of course I care." And somehow, she can tell he's being honest.

Astrid looks away for a moment, missing his eyes to stare off into the darkness of the cove in thought.

"Are you waiting for me to fall asleep?"

She looks back at him. "Oh, no. I just… I have no idea, and I'm trying to make up my mind."

"You're not stupid, Astrid, I'm sure you'll figure out the best way. You don't fail. Usually."

"_Usually?" _She asks incredulously.

His smile widens into a grin. "Last I checked, once upon a time you set out to kill me. And—" He motions with his hands to himself. "I'm right here. In fact, I think we're _friends _now."

"Yet. I set out to kill you, and I haven't killed you _yet._"

"Touché."

"But…" She falls silent for a second. "We'll have to wait and see. It could go any which way."

"I hope you fail." He says bluntly.

"Gee, thanks."

"You _know _what I mean. You and Stormfly will be free. Still, I can understand if you want to give this place one more shot. I don't think they deserve one, but… I know that you don't think just about yourself. Not like…" He trails off and doesn't finish. He doesn't have to.

_Not like I did._

Astrid pretends not to notice. "Maybe you do need to get some sleep, you're not even finishing your sentences." But even as she's saying this she reaches over and puts a hand on top of his that rests on his knee.

He looks down at her hand for a moment, kind of curiously, like he didn't know how exactly to respond to such an outspoken gesture. Then he turns his hand upwards, grasping hers in his. "Thanks." He says quietly.

"You don't have anything to be ashamed about. Besides, you know, trying to destroy the village."

"You're too good."

"So are you, Hiccup. You just won't admit it."

He grins at her. "Okay, yea, don't abuse the word. I'm going to sleep now, you're free to stay here with me." But even when he closes his eyes again with another final yawn, he doesn't let go of her hand.

_If I stay here, that makes me as good as a transnational dragon terrorists._

Astrid sighs in defeat, readjusting her neck and closing her eyes. No one would even notice she was gone. Probably.

She decides to let her hand sit, leaving it wrapped up in Hiccup's. Holding his hand, well, it made her feel happy. She hated to admit it (she wasn't going to admit it) but this couldn't be just friendship between them, it couldn't be.

And earlier today—she'd been entranced, for lack of a better word. That didn't just happen with anybody (it happened with _nobody_), and even thinking about that moment made Astrid's belly feel warm.

So what did these feeling mean? Putting a label on it was just going to give her a headache. Instead, she decided, holding his hand was probably going to be enough.

(In a platonic, totally non-romantic way. Yea.)

.

.

.

When she wakes up that morning, Astrid's vision is slanted. It takes her a moment to make sense of the situation and how and why she was here—and why the entire world looked crooked.

She must have shifted in her sleep, because during the night she had slid down Toothless' side and onto Hiccup's shoulder. It wasn't the most comfortable of positions for her neck, but the warmth of Hiccup's side felt good against his arm. She feels his hand still clutching on to hers.

But Astrid is too drowsy to think. She looks over at Hiccup, and their eyes meet.

"Good, you're awake." He says, letting go of her hand and nudging his shoulder in a kind of 'get off' motion. Astrid tries not to let his distain bother her.

She lifts her head, half asleep and still too tired to process.

Hiccup stands up, raises his hands in the air and stretches his shoulders in a couple of directions. After a few seconds of that he puts a hand on his hip and turns around, offering her a hand.

Astrid looks at it blankly before reaching out and allowing him to help her to her feet. "You have somewhere to be?" she asks sarcastically, rubbing one of her eyes to try and regain her wits.

He's not paying attention anymore, busy pulling and readjusting straps on Toothless' saddle with precise determination.

"I thought you were going to stay here?" She asks as she realizes that he really is preparing to leave.

He shrugs. "It's just an errand. I'll be back by the end of the day. That'll give you lots of time to work out your plan."

"Where are you going?" She asks curiously as he yanks the saddle and climbs on top of it in one quick move.

"You probably don't want to know."

"You told me I could know everything." She says smartly, crossing her arms over her chest.

He rubs the back of his neck and makes a face, his serious expression finally breaking into something more sheepish. More Hiccup. "Right. I forgot about that."

"So?" She says expectantly.

He eyes Astrid's dragon that still stands, napping. "Be quick and I'll show you."

.

.

.

"Just so we're clear, we're not going to burn down a village, are we?" Astrid yells above the wind as the two fly side-by-side. She's a bit nervous about the flight—she'd barely moved around the cove with Stormfly yesterday, and now Hiccup was leading her off the island and over open water. But even as her common sense was gnawing away at her stomach, she found that the ebbing hesitancy was drowned out by the absolute rush of being on a dragon. She really did hope Hiccup hadn't been lying, and this feeling never went away.

But she's nearly forgotten that Hiccup is a terrorist, and a clever one at that, and the last thing she wanted was for him to mislead her into another plot to drive Vikings out of dragon-infested territories. Not that it hadn't been fun to vanquish the Outcasts, she just didn't want to be caught off guard again.

"Ha!" She's sure he's smiling beneath his flight mask. "Not quite! Well—you'll see when we get there!"

Soon enough Toothless begins to drift right, and Stormfly follows suit. They reach a small group of islands, fly right past. Hiccup makes a daring swoop in between a natural rock archway—Astrid decides maybe she's not ready for that quite yet and flies around. They keep forward for a few more minutes when they reach a more open space while other islands making a far-reaching border.

"There!" But Hiccup doesn't need to point and yell for her to see the massive iceberg up ahead. No… ice structure? The closer they get the more Astrid notices that the iceberg wasn't at all a natural shape—it looked as if a wave—or a gust of wind, even—had turned to solid ice right in the middle of blowing away a small village. It was the most unnatural and daunting thing Astrid had ever seen, and terrifies her for a short second. There were so many things, still, that she didn't understand about dragons.

"What did you do?" She yells over at him, following suit as he and Toothless stop and hover beside the monstrous structure. They weren't even near the top, and from this spot she can see in every direction, which leads her to believe they must be here to use it as some kind of vantage point. But besides the surprisingly strong winds that rip at the waters below, nothing in sight looks anything less than perfectly harmless. Which raises the question… what were they there for?

The wind sends a chill through her, and Astrid pulls her hood up over her head to try and compensate for her bare arms. "What are we doing here?" She asks again.

Hiccup's not paying attention, instead having stood up in his seat, swiveling his head and looking in every which direction. The serious look on his face makes Astrid nervous.

"Hiccup…" Astrid drones, watching him but knowing he's not listening.

"Sorry," He mumbles, and finally slips off his mask. He places the mask in his lap, and his other hand goes to his belt where he unclips the sword hilt she'd last seen when they'd invaded Outcast Island. When he'd tricked her and they'd blown up the mountain.

…The sight of it did not bring much hope.

He glances up at her while he mashes the button on the hilt of the sword. The sword does not expand. "This used to be a fort before my mother blew it up." He notices her expression. "It's a long story that I'll tell you later, but the bottom line is that, before she did that, there used to be a bunch of dragon trappers living here."

"Dragon trappers…?" Astrid echoes. There were people that did that? For years Berk had been setting up traps in the surrounding forests to catch stray dragons that wandered too close to the village, but it had never been a _profession. _

He nods. "It was a growing business a while back. My mother and I pretty much wiped them out last year, but…" He trails off, and his head turns in the opposite direction. He's looking off into the distance at the surrounding cliff sides, but they're mostly covered in shrubbery and rolling waves of misty fog, making them hard to make out.

Astrid looks around herself, suddenly aware of what Hiccup is looking for. "So, if they were wiped out, what are we doing here?"

He smirks fleetingly, his eyes still focused on the distance. "Well, I've been doing some investigating after we destroyed Outcast Island. About five years ago, the Outcasts were collecting dragons and trying to train them like I did. But they didn't really have the means to go to inhabited areas and catch strays, so they were constantly shopping from trappers."

"You mean these guys would trap dragon _alive_?"

"Like I said, it was a big business."

The thought makes Astrid sick. She knew what happened to the dragons that Berk caught for training, and she could only imagine what the Outcasts would do to their dragons in similar situations. It made her teeth grind together, and suddenly she wished Hiccup would show her a trapper fort to burn.

"And I noticed that the Outcasts had too many dragons captive, way more than they should have been able to catch when there were so few of them left. So I investigated all the old trapping spots, thinking someone had set up another post somewhere. But nothing came up, so I let it go."

"But you realized at some time between last night and this morning that this was the only place you hadn't checked." Astrid finishes for him.

"Exactly. I thought maybe someone stupid enough was scavenging it and trapping again." He leans forward and aligns himself with Toothless' line of sight, watching the dragon inspect the surrounding areas. "But if Toothless really doesn't sense anything—"

Suddenly, Toothless _does _sense something, and lurches to the left, dodging out of the way as a harpoon flies through the air they had been a moment ago.

The dragon stops to hover again, screaming in the direction the harpoon came from but waiting for Hiccup to decide to attack.

"I knew it!" Hiccup says angrily, holding Toothless' reigns tightly to prevent the dragon from advancing. He grabs his mask from his lap and slips it back on before reaching at his calf and pulling out a dagger.

Another arrow comes flying from the fog, and Hiccup dodges easily before righting again. "Those idiots!" He says to himself.

"What are you doing?" Astrid asks, a little frantic. It isn't like her to get nervous in the face of battle, but this wasn't like anything she'd done before—she was at least a thousand feet off the ground riding on a baby dragon to which she'd mastered very little maneuverability. She didn't know how to fight on Stormfly—not to mention she had no idea how to protect both of them at the same time.

This was not ideal.

Astrid raises her hand at the last second as she notices Hiccup's parry knife fly right at her. She grabs it out of the air, looking down at it quickly before back up at him. "Hiccup, I don't know how to fight on Stormfly!"

"Then wait here! I'm not letting them go!" Hiccup growls before charging forward, disappearing into the fog-coated cliffs.

"Well…" Astrid feels awkward, even the feeling of the knife in her hand felt like a new experience. She should have expected this, she really should have. But she also thought Hiccup would warn her if there was a chance they were going to be fighting. She felt so useless, just waiting here for him to come back…

Stormfly squawks questioningly, tilting her head to look over at Astrid like "_So what are we waiting for?_"

"This feels like a really bizarre role reversal…" Astrid mutters to herself patting Stormfly's side reassuringly. When did she sit behind while Hiccup went out and fought? If Berk could see her now, they would laugh.

Not that it wasn't a worthy cause to defend dragons from trappers, but Astrid wasn't stupid. Maybe she had been reckless while practising, but this was serious now. She would not risk her neck, and the life of Stormfly, to try and prove something to no one but herself.

Astrid tucks the knife into her belt, crossing her arms. She looks over at the ice structure, and vaguely wonders how on earth Valka could have managed to do such a thing. What kind of dragon was capable of something like that? Even the Red Death—

Stormfly squawks again, but this time it's a very different sound that alerts Astrid back to reality. She notices the oncoming arrow as Stormfly begins to move, easily dipping out of the way of the projectile.

Crap, they had spotted her.

But one arrow at a time, they could handle that. She would wait here until Hiccup came back, or he destroyed the fort, whatever came first.

Stormfly groans in warning again, dodging out of the way as another couple of arrows come in their direction.

She can't see a fort of any kind, but Astrid knows there must be something hiding out in the fog, and Hiccup was probably right about the scavengers. As the offenders keep shooting at them, she begins to get a clearer and clearer idea of where exactly the fort was located. They mustn't be that bright to reveal themselves like this.

"Ah," Astrid's eyes are trained on the fog, and she sees another group of arrows come their way. This time there must be at least half a dozen, with a shot from the harpoon centring out the pack.

Stormfly ducks downwards under the offense, and that's when Astrid realizes the inevitable mistake—as the dragon twists out of the way of the arrows, they don't have time to see and avoid the rope net flying their way.

Stormfly can't get out of the way fast enough, and the net catches one of her wings. Astrid has the wind knocked out of her with the force of the collision, and suddenly the world is spinning. Stormfly thrashes wildly as they tumble towards the water below, falling faster than imaginable and most definitely towards certain death.


	14. The Girl Falls to Her Death

**A/N: Alright, I'm back on my game (kind of?). I'm very excited to show you guys everything I have in store. **

**There's a bit of physics in this chapter, of which I will admit I'm not very confident in. It's been a while since I've had a hand at these kinds of calculations. But I figure from my limited knowledge and the internet that Astrid and Stormfly have about 8-ish seconds before impact. Now I'm no expert, so don't go citing that for your physics reports or anything. But if you are an expert, and reading this, feel free to correct me (or better yet, tell me that my math skills are still awesome). But anyway, it's a really small detail so not really that important.**

**I feel awful that I have to do this, but I already have horrible time management and I don't really have the time to respond to your questions. I'm just going to put it out there, as a general answer, that everything will be explained fully at some point or another. I thought of everything (I'm pretty sure). Eventually, you will all find out. As for anon request, well... maybe? I can't really say, you're just going to have to wait... hehe...**

**Onward!**

* * *

"Stormfly!" Astrid yells, clutching the saddle for dear life but completely unable to do anything more as Stormfly thrashes wildly, making them spin in the air as they plummet to the water below.

From a fall at this high, Astrid knew they couldn't make it. A drop like this would kill them instantly; she didn't have to ever ride a dragon to understand why Vikings never made it a habit to jump off of cliffs.

So Astrid does the only thing her body knows how in a dangerous situation: kicks into overdrive.

"Stormfly, calm down!" Astrid yells, although fruitlessly, as her dragon continues to panic and struggle under the restraints of the ropes. It was a full net but it had only caught one wing, which, if Astrid was nimble enough (and lucky enough), she could detach.

(Maybe.)

Hiccup wasn't around to rescue her, so she had no choice but to do it herself. And when did Astrid Hofferson ever need a rescue?

She can barely focus her eyes on what's in front of her as they spin, but Astrid grasps a piece of the net in front of her and rips the parry knife from her belt. She tears through the rope easily enough, slashing through multiple threads at once. She goes at it again, hacking away at the fibres as they continue to spiral hopelessly towards the ocean.

"AGH!" Astrid loses her balance on the saddle as they twist upside-down, sliding off the seat and grabbing a handheld to keep herself from drifting away. Her legs fly upwards as they twist around again.

But now, at least, her vision is clear and she can see (more or less) exactly where she needs to cut and pull to get the rest of the net away. She also notices that they're about two hundred feet from smacking the surface of the water at neck-breaking speeds. From here, it would be like hitting a rock wall.

Reaching forward, Astrid uses the strength in the one arm still grasping the saddle and pulls, forcing herself back to Stormfly and the net as her feet flutter above her. She slashes out another piece of the rope and another, and with that, at the speed of their fall, the net catches the wind and flies off into the air above them.

Now free, Stormfly extends her wings to stop their descent. It's like a parachute's been pulled, and Astrid nearly smashes into Stormfly's saddle as their speeds change drastically.

"Eeck!" Astrid tosses the knife, throwing it out into the ocean before she accidentally impales herself on the blade with the speed of their collision. With her hand now free she grabs the other handheld on the saddle, forcing her hips down and pulling herself into a near-sitting position as her dragon continues to struggle against the wind.

They were still falling, albeit a lot slower, as Stormfly's small wings fought against the massive amount of speed they had accumulated.

Fifty feet until the water.

Twenty feet.

Ten.

And then, just as it might seem that Stormfly's able to stop their fall, it's like they hit a rock on the road. Stormfly jolts forward and Astrid gets bucked off her dragon, sailing over the nadder's head and into the water like a missile from a cannon. She bounces once on the water, the surface stinging her back, before she flips over and ploughs forward face-first.

Astrid is motionless as she skids and begins to sink under the waves. She's trying to absorb the impact from the water with grace, but her head is seriously not letting her have it.

Everything is spinning, or maybe shaking, or maybe both. The world is nondescript and blurry and nothing seemed like it was anything more than nothing. In every direction, there was nothing to see. The air is thick, which made breathing difficult but Astrid is quickly becoming too disoriented and tired from all this looking to try and find some more breathable air. She can't even find it within herself to question it.

She's just _so _tired, all of the flying and falling off of Stormfly had really tuckered her out. If only she had the strength to close her eyes, maybe she could rest. Or maybe they were closed already, she wasn't exactly sure at the moment, everything just looked the same.

_No… you can't pass out!_ Someone was yelling at her, but she couldn't be bothered to listen. She was far too stubborn for that.

Something tugs on her hair. She can feel it faintly but the pain isn't registering. The sensation is similar, like that time… that time… she can't remember. She isn't even sure why she's here. Something to do with…

The pull is much more aggressive, and this time Astrid feels it. If her eyes were closed they shoot open, and her hand goes to the back of her head. Something large and scaly is clamped onto her hood and caught some of her hair in the process. It tugs again rather harshly, and Astrid opens her mouth to protest.

Then she notices the water. Water, _everywhere. _She was underwater—and Stormfly—

They break the surface, and Astrid gasps for the air she didn't even know she had been craving until a second ago. The air is shockingly cold, even colder, she thinks, than the water, and her cheeks sting. She inhales deeply again.

Ow. Ow, everywhere.

"Stormfly…" she beats her bangs away from her eyes with shaky fingers, looking around frantically for her dragon. The surface of the water is rougher than it had looked from the sky as it sprays upwards, disorienting her. It's like it was stuck in her ears, filling her head with the sounds of sloshing.

Her dragon approaches her. Unlike how she had expected, Stormfly is a good swimmer. She's using her wings to tread, flapping them back and forth slowly to keep herself afloat. It was surprisingly effective, but did look a little bit odd.

Stormfly had saved her, obviously.

Astrid kicks over and wraps her arms around Stormfly's snout, so incredibly grateful. How could anyone have ever thought badly of dragons, ever? Stormfly was just a baby, and she'd saved her life. The dragon could have easily let her drown, but she didn't.

"Thank you," Astrid breaths, resting her head against Stormfly. The dragon hums in response, refraining from opening her mouth as not to knock Astrid back into the water.

After a few seconds, Astrid gently pushes away and treads on her own.

(Ow. Ow everywhere… but nothing felt worse than really sore).

"Okay…" Astrid looks over at the ice fort, then turning in the direction she knew the fort Hiccup was attacking to be. The fog is still thick, so she can't be sure exactly what's there, but from this angle she can see where the water met land at least. That would be their goal for now.

If Astrid and Stormfly had any chance of getting out of there, they have to get to land. Stormfly, although a proficient enough swimmer, couldn't tread and take off at the same time when she used the same appendages for both. This was probably the really good reasons deadly nadders didn't live near water.

She can't see Hiccup anywhere in the air. The thought is a little bit concerning, but she decides to focus on one problem at a time.

"We're going to have to go to the island, it's the closest," Astrid says to Stormfly, who seems to make a nod-like motion, so it's taken an agreement.

Nodding back, Astrid turns and begins swimming, her eyes on the sky. Hiccup… where are you?

Stormfly starts making noise, and Astrid stops, looking back at the nadder curiously. "What's wrong?"

The dragon continues to make little nods, and after a second of confused staring Astrid gets it. She grins at her dragon. "You're so sweet," She says, swimming over and grabbing onto the saddle strap that wrapped around Stormfly's torso.

The dragon begins to swat her wings, moving them rather quickly and steadily towards the island. Astrid allows herself to be pulled along.

When they reach waters shallow enough, Astrid drops herself from the saddle so she can stand on her own feet. The island has more of a ledge instead of a beach, and after wading through the waist-high water, Astrid grabs onto the small cliff side and pulls herself into a sitting position on top of it. She exhales loudly, looking out over the water and up in the sky. He hands wrap around her brain and she begins to rather hopelessly wring the water out, but her mind is focused on spotting another dragon in the sky.

It was weird, that she hadn't seen (or a least heart) of Hiccup. When was destroying things ever a quiet process?

Stormfly leaps up rather easily onto the ledge after Astrid. There's a brief moment of silence before Stormfly starts shaking the water off her scales, spraying her rider and the subsequent forest.

"Ah, Stormfly!" Astrid groans, raising her arms in defense to little effect. (It would have been bothersome had she not already been soaked). But she can't help but laugh, and then realizing what an inappropriate time it was to laugh, abruptly stops.

"We gotta find Hiccup…" She exhales, looking back at the cliffs where the fort was supposed to be. "Or get out of here, or do something. We definitely can't stay here … what do we do?" She asks Stormfly, glancing up at her dragon.

The nadder squawks, titling her head to look back at her. She motions towards the cliffs with one wing.

"Yea, you're right." (Was it weird that she totally got that?) "We should get moving—"

Both Astrid and Stormfly hear it at the same time: a faint, yet still distinct, high-pitched noise.

The girls both look at each other. "What is that?" Astrid voices, suddenly wishing that she'd not thrown Hiccup's knife into the ocean.

"AGHHHHH!" The sound quickly turns into a distinctive yell, one that Astrid (thankfully) doesn't recognise.

She spins around, watching the forest for someone coming their way.

"WHOAAAAA!" A man in a thick fur outfit comes sliding down the side of the steep hill, head first and on his back. Astrid jumps out of the way more out of surprise than fear, watching the man skid right past and over the edge of the small cliff, using it like a ramp to backflop into the water. He lands with a surprisingly satisfying plunk and disappears beneath the surface.

"What the Hel…" She peers over the side of the ledge, preparing herself to fight this man in case he tries to climb back up. He must have been one of the trappers Hiccup had been taking about before he was… expelled. At least this meant that Hiccup had found the fort.

A second later the man resurfaces, his face flushed and eyes red. He doesn't even look their way, instead turns to face the open water and swim away as fast as he could, panting with the effort and maybe even crying a little bit.

What…

From somewhere above them, Astrid hears the familiar sound of Toothless' plasma blast. Following that is the expected sound of something blowing up and a number of men yelling profanities and at each other. There's another blast, and then another, and Astrid starts to smell smoke.

With this new development, she looks back over at her dragon. "I guess it's time to get back up there, then." She says, grabbing the saddle strap and (with a little help from Stormfly) hoists herself back up on the saddle. It's still slightly slick with water and Astrid readjusts her grip on the saddle, although she has no fears of falling off, this time.

Stormfly extends and bats her wings a few times before taking off. The two fly skywards, gaining a good amount of height before stopping to hover out over the water.

The fog has cleared over the ridges where a massive fire is raging across a number of small buildings. Now able to clearly see the fort, Astrid notices how cleverly it had been built: instead of one big structure it was a group of many, all haphazardly stacked on the side of the hill with a number of low-lying platforms. Using the fog, they had been pretty much invisible. If the inhabitants hadn't attacked, they probably would still have their fort in one piece.

But now, it was falling apart. Slowly the fire was eating away at the bases of the platforms, causing them to collapse and drop the buildings down the side of the cliff. Wait… where was Hiccup?

Stormfly begins to turn, and Astrid tears her eyes away from the collapsing fort in the new direction they were moving. Hiccup and Toothless are casually making their way over, stopping to hover next to them.

"It's too bad, that was a really cool fort." Hiccup says coolly, glancing her way. He does a double take. "What happened to you?" He asks, nodding towards her.

Astrid looks down at her damp clothing. She looks up and smiles sheepishly. "We got hit by a net and fell into the water."

He looks alarmed. "What? Are you okay? We must have been a thousand feet in the air, how did you survive a drop like that?"

Astrid looks down at her dragon, smiling. "Do I sense _doubt _in your voice?"

"No, I mean—you just said you fell a thousand feet!"

She grins at him, motioning in the direction of the Berk smugly. "Can we go back, now?"

His expression turns wry. "Oh, yea. Just one more thing I should do," He says, reaching for his belt and pulling out a short cylindrical piece of metal. It didn't look like anything Astrid recognised, but knowing Hiccup it was probably something unfortunate.

"You guys go on ahead, we'll catch up." He says, floating past Astrid back towards the devastated fort. Astrid and Stormfly stay put, watching curiously as Toothless glides over the hillside and Hiccup drops the mystery object into the wreckage.

Toothless swoops around and begins to fly their way again. As the four set off together back towards Berk, Astrid looks over at Hiccup. "What was that thing?" She asks.

"A canister of hideous zippleback venom. I usually use it as an add-on for my sword but it has multiple purposes." He says.

"What? But the fort is one fire, that gas…?"

"Oh, it'll blow the fort sky-high. And if that won't be enough to ward off scavengers again, I don't know what will!" He says a little too gleefully.

Astrid glances over her shoulder, watching the burning fort as they retreat. Nothing seems to be happening. "Are you sure—"

The fort suddenly implodes, the hillside erupting into a massive cloud of flames that shoots high in the air. Fiery debris shoot in all directions like a volcano, splattering against giant ice wall but doing it minimal damage in respect to its size.

Astrid watches the explosion with wide eyes as they fly farther away from the heated cloud. The inferno on Outcast Island wasn't nearly as small, but this one just felt different.

"Were there any people left in there?" Astrid asks, still shifted in her seat to watch the hillside. She probably already knew the answer, but she felt the need to ask. Just to know exactly what she had been a part of.

"I let them go," Hiccup says gruffly, and Astrid turns back to look at him, a bit shocked, but he's not facing her way.

"You let them go?" She says questioningly. That didn't sound like something Hiccup would do. "But—"

"I just needed the fort gone." Hiccup says with a tone of finality, and Astrid drops it. If Hiccup had it in his mind to spare lives, well… she wasn't going to question it.

.

.

.

When they arrive at Berk, it only makes sense for the pair to head back to the cove to recoup in peace. Stormfly lands the moment they arrive—the poor thing is clearly tuckered out from such a full, action-packed morning. For just a baby she had done so well, and as Astrid climbs down she runs a hand along her dragon's side.

"You were fantastic," She says warmly. "I'm so proud of you."

Stormfly hums in response before bending over in what was probably the deadly nadder equivalent of sitting. She folds up her wings, clearly ready for a nap.

Hiccup circles the cove once on Toothless before coming to a clean landing next to Stormfly. He's saying something to Toothless that she can't make out before he goes to unhook himself from the saddle. He looks a little bit flushed, which is an odd colour from his usual pale complexion.

"Did you get a sunburn or something?" Astrid asks him.

He looks her way, his eyes slightly unfocused. He smiles sheepishly. "Yea, something like that."

His response is delivered oddly. "Oh, uh, I could go get something for that. We've got—"

Hiccup falls, sliding off his dragon and into the grass on the opposite side of Toothless as Astrid was.

Astrid is shocked, not entirely sure what he was doing. "Hiccup!" She yells, running around Toothless to where Hiccup was, his features scrunched up in what was inarguably pain. He holds his hands to his side, groaning quietly.

Toothless stands up, looking over at Hiccup with startled eyes. He raises his head to Astrid inquiringly and she can see the deep concern in the dragon's wide gaze.

Astrid falls on her knees next to him. From years of battling fatally against dragons, Astrid knew this expression, this situation, very well. It was that of an idiot Viking who thought he could just absorb the pain and digest it like a meal rather than treat it.

"You were stabbed!" She screeches, fury then terror then concern taking over one after another and confusing her tone. She wants to hit him, but she decides it might not be the best decision for his health at the moment.

"Let me see," She says, gently holding his hands and moving them away from his side. There's a clear puncture in the leather weaving of his armour, the fringes stained a dark crimson while everything beyond that looks just as horrible. There's a small amount of blood leaking out, although thankfully not nearly as much as there should have been for a wound this fresh. But it was definitely enough blood and a steady enough pace for Astrid to worry he was losing too much.

How long had he been hiding this from her? How much more blood had he lost? _How _had she not noticed?

She had about a thousand other question to ask him, but now was not the best time. She had to get this stitched up and covered before it became any worse.

"We have to get you to the village. Can you stand?" She asks, dropping his hands and kneeling to prepare herself to help him up.

"I can't go the village." He says with a surprising amount of control.

"You know, I don't really care about your stupid war right now. If you don't go get help, then you're going to die with a wound like that! Even if the blood loss doesn't kill you, an infection will!"

"I'd rather die than get caught," He says grumpily, glaring up at her like a toddler told playtime was over. His eyebrows mesh together and his eyes squeeze shut again as Astrid is sure the pain hits him again.

"Too bad! I'm not going to let you die, so now I'm going to help you up, and we're going to go to the village and get help!" She says angrily. If she wasn't concerned she'd make it worse, she would have put him in a fireman's carry already.

"Astrid…" He manages a half-smile. "With the kind of lifestyle I live, this was sure to… happen at some point." He pauses and his face contorts again.

"No! NO!" Astrid feels the back of her eyes prick, but she doesn't dare cry. He's not dead yet, not even close, and he won't be at least for a while, if she had anything to say about it. "Honestly, Hiccup, you're so stupid sometimes!"

Astrid begins unravelling the leather string from around her cuff, tossing it on the ground. She slips the cuff off and turns it inside out.

"I'm serious, Astrid." Hiccup warns.

"So am I!" She says firmly, pressing the furry side of the cuff against his would to try to stop some of the bleeding. It wasn't the most absorbent of fabrics, but it would be enough to block some of the escaping blood. She picks up the leather string, and quickly but carefully starts winding it around his torso to hold the cuff in place.

"What kind of dragon master are you, anyway?" She grumbles as she works. "You want to help dragons and get rid of all the Vikings and all that crap, and then on the first hit you go down. I thought you told me you got stronger, but this seems pretty weak to me!"

"I can't do any of that stuff if I get caught," Hiccup rasps, frowning at her. "They'd probably kill me anyway."

"I won't let them," Astrid growls.

"You won't have a say. If… if you really want to help me, go get whatever you need to fix this and come back here. I can…" He exhales loudly. "…tough it out."

"No way, anything can happen while I'm gone!"

"Toothless will protect me," He argues.

"I don't mean that," She says, finally finishing with the leather, tying it in a knot on his other hip.

"I don't believe it, is Astrid Hofferson actually showing signs of _concern_?" He says, although his teasing tone is weak.

"Shut up and raise your head," She says, not paying mind to his comment.

He doesn't move. "I can't go there."

"Stop being such a child! I won't let you get caught!" She says, lifting his head herself so she can loop an arm around his shoulders. She raises him into a sitting position and he doesn't fight her, although she has to wonder if maybe that's because he really can't now.

He puts a hand on her other arm. His grip is weak.

"How?"

"Don't worry about it!"

"I'm inclined to."

Astrid growls again, glaring at him. "You can't let yourself die, Hiccup. If you die…" She struggles to think of the right words. How could she express everything he meant to her?

"If you die, then I won't be able to kill you! I promised you I would, and I can't kill you while you're injured, it wouldn't be honourable! So you have to let me help you, I promise I won't let you get caught!"

That seems to shut him up. His expression is soft as he looks at her, his eyes full of meaning. "Okay, fine… just stop yelling."

"Shut up!" She yells. "If you weren't injured, I would have beat you up by now!" Maybe she was being a little bit harsh, but he was being a lot a bit stupid. How could he even _suggest _that he was willing to die over something so petty? Besides the fact that he hadn't told her he'd been hurt, it angered her that he would suggest giving up so easily. Not to mention he wasn't even considering how it would affect her. She had come to care for him, and if he were gone, she'd be all alone again.

Carefully she helps him to his feet, allowing him to lean heavily against her. But it isn't anything she can't handle as she readjusts her arm to go under his opposite shoulder.

Toothless pokes his head in Hiccup's direction, his eyes looking at Hiccup with nothing short of worry. His stare seems to mean something to Hiccup, and he reaches out his free hand and touched the scales on top of the dragon's head.

"It's okay, Bud. It's not like the last time, Astrid's going to fix me up." He mumbles.

…The last time?

Astrid adds another question dated for a later time. "We'll take Stormfly out of here, and then walk the rest of the way. I'll get you in and out without being spotted. Just trust me, okay?"

Hiccup shakes his head. "She can't carry the both of us, and she's exhausted. Toothless can take us."

Astrid glances over at the aforementioned dragon hesitantly. He's still watching Hiccup, head bowed meekly. Astrid doesn't have a problem with Toothless, but… she doesn't think she'd be able to manage the complex system to maneuver the tail.

But Hiccup was right, and he didn't have time to wait…

"It's really not that hard, I'll help you." Hiccup says reassuringly.

Astrid swallows hard. "Okay… let's go."


	15. The Boy Bleeds

**A/N: Hello, my wonderful and patient readers! It's been... a while... University is a you-know-what. I worked on this chapter foreverrr but it never seemed to truly end. There's a nice non-cliffie at the end, there, just to make everyone happy. Thankfully I only have one month left, and then I will have aaaaaallllll the free time in the world to work on this story. **

**I'm getting excited, guys... this chapter marks what I would like to call 'the beginning of the end'. _But Breelin_, you may ask, _where's the Hiccstrid!?_ Excellent question. I'm not close to done, worry not, but the events of this chapter begin the chain of events that will, eventually, set up the climax. Keep your eyes peeled from here on out-information here may (will) play an important part in chapters to come. **

**Onward!**

* * *

Hiccup was supposed to be giving her instructions on how to fly Toothless.

It was easy, he said.

He would help her, he said.

He was fine, he said.

And as much as she hated to admit it, Hiccup was right about the ease of the controls—until he _passed out_.

Astrid finds herself focusing on the steps to operating Toothless' tail, so much so that she nearly forgets about Hiccup's arms wrapped weakly around her waist. His chin rests on her shoulder, whispering instructions to her if needed and groaning every so often to remind her that even if he wasn't exactly kicking, at least he was still alive.

(And Astrid couldn't believe she was here, doing this, with him. Not just helping, but attempting to save the life of Berk's worst enemy while simultaneously maneuvering the archipelago's most notoriously destructive dragon.

Both of which, by the way, would be completely out of commission if she just left them alone, which was a good step below what any good Berkian would do.

If there was ever an opportunity for her to get _more _mutinous, this had to be it. And now she was taking the both of them straight to Berk…)

Hiccup's grip slackens, an almost indiscernible difference to his already faint hold, and in her fury of trying _not _to crash them into the trees below, Astrid barely notices until he's about to slip right off behind her.

Cursing, Astrid frees a hand from Toothless' reigns to roughly grab one of the leather loops on Hiccup's armour. Then she remembers why they were doing all of this in the first place, and curses her lack of forethought. This kind of manhandling couldn't be anything good for his condition, even if it couldn't be helped.

She glances down at her makeshift bandage. It looks intact, but crimson blood frays the edges of the fur; the cuff wasn't stopping much and she'd probably just irritated the wound again when she'd yanked him a minute ago.

But gods, she'd told him over and over not to close his eyes. She knew it, he knew it, it was the fundamental law of treating any wounded person: If they fall asleep before treatment, there's a fair chance they're never going to wake up again. If they pass out…

Astrid looks up at his face, notices the colour. He's pale, even paler than usual and a striking difference compared to the redness he'd been a few minutes ago. He's still leaning half-off his dragon, secured just by her hand in a sturdy leather loop.

It was emergency landing time. From this angle… she couldn't even tell if he was still breathing, a reality she really didn't want to have to think about. It would be just like that bastard to die in an attempt to get the last word.

"Okay, Toothless…" Astrid says, turning as best she can to right Hiccup. His body falls heavily against her back, but it's not a weight she can't handle. "We have to go down!"

The dragon doesn't protest, thankfully, and with at least a partial view of the terrain ahead as she stays focused on keeping Hiccup upright, they begin to descend. Astrid wasn't exactly sure _how _to land—just getting in the air had its own challenges, and she figured that Hiccup would explain the 'landing' part when it came time to actually do it. But Toothless is on top of the situation, and while Astrid puts the tail in what she figures is a neutral position, he manages to glide them towards the ground.

They slide in easily between the trees, and a moment later the trio have landed somewhat gently on the ground. Astrid already has a leg over before they even make contact.

"Hiccup," Astrid growls, shifting in a way to shake him.

He doesn't respond (as if it would be that easy) and she hops off of Toothless. Holding Hiccup steady, she manages to lie him flat, using Toothless as a cot of some sorts. The dragon doesn't move, getting the idea.

"Hiccup," Astrid says again, weakly, panicked as she gets a better look at his face. He looked downright deathly, and his skin feels incredibly clammy as Astrid feels her hand along his neck.

Pulse, pulse, come on, pulse.

In her panic, she doesn't notice it right away. But she feels his breathing against her wrist, and a part of her stomach unclenches with relief.

She… oh gods, what had she done? Realization hits her as her mind clears of panic. She'd been so concerned with making sure that he was alright, they'd stopped moving. Every second they lost waiting was another second something could go horribly wrong. Even now, if she had discovered he wasn't alright, what could she have done?

Sighing heavily, Astrid lets her hands fall to her sides. How could she have let this happen? How could she have allowed her common sense to get clouded?

_This is what happens when you care about someone._

That's…. no excuse.

She feels herself sinking, against her better judgement. Her knees let her fall and she hits the ground harder than expected, legs tucked under her as she leans back against Toothless roughly.

And she still didn't even have a plan. She promised Hiccup she wouldn't let him get caught… but what was she going to do? How could she sneak him into the village without getting spotted by anyone?

She couldn't give up; it wasn't in her nature. If Hiccup could sneak into an Outcast Stronghold without getting caught, then… wait…

"I need a distraction…" Astrid mumbles, her hands planting themselves on either side of herself. If she could get the eyes of Berk off the streets and onto something else… she could get into the village.

Toothless makes a chittering noise. Astrid glances at the dragon, mulling it over.

…No, she can't use Toothless as bait. (A downed dragon is a dead dragon, after all).

If not Toothless, then what? Astrid wishes for a second that Hiccup could wake up long enough to use his dragon whispering magic and whip up something big, scary and distraction-y.

Toothless begins to vibrate as he continues making that same noise. She's about to shoot him another questioning look when the dragon raises his head to the sky and all-out roars. It's loud enough to make the leaves on the trees quiver, and Astrid to cover her ears.

Reinvigorated, Astrid jumps to her feet. Had he lost his mind? That last thing they needed was for the village to divide up its ranks and come looking for them! A downed dragon, a traitor and an unconscious man did not make for a good getaway. She's about to tell him off when the sun suddenly disappears. The forest is thrust into darkness, and Astrid blinks a couple times to adjust her sight. Instinctually she looks up—and she freezes in near disbelief.

A dragon—a _massive _dragon—soars overhead. From this distance she could only guess it was some kind of timberjack—but it's wingspan must be double what a normal timberjack's might, and its body thinner and longer. It makes a fait screaming noise and continues its way overhead, and with the disappearance of its shadow comes the sun again.

Astrid is stuck in shock. Where did something _that big _even come from? How could it have been hiding on Berk the entire time, and no one have found it?

She didn't really have time to consider. This might be her perfect opportunity to—

The sun flashes out again, and she gapes and looks upwards as _another _of those mysterious dragons glides overhead. What…?

It's then she sees the rest of them.

The only thing she can think of is the word _swarm. _Zipplebacks, nightmares, thunderdrums, terrors, even a scauldron… and so many more than she doesn't recognize, or has ever seen in the book of dragons.

So many.

_Too many._

The villagers of Berk were simply outnumbered, ten to one. This many dragons couldn't be stopped, couldn't even be countered. This many dragons… where did they come from? If they were here to attack, Berk was doomed. But if there was any one person with the ability to command dragons…

And so many things fell into place at that moment. Hiccup wasn't a dragon master, he may work well with dragons but he never had the ability to control them like she thought, like Berk did.

"It's you…?" Astrid asks, looking over at Toothless with wide eyes. It would only make more sense, a dragon being able to control other dragons. Maybe it was a nightfury thing, one more fact that Vikings had never been able to find out about Berk's most mysterious dragon.

Toothless watches her intelligently. He makes a groaning noise, motioning his head towards the village.

_Don't look so dumbstruck, Astrid. Close your mouth and let's get going, _it says.

Astrid looks up as the crowds of dragons continue to pass overhead. This was it, this was her distraction. Toothless has given them the opportunity to move into the village while everyone else was looking elsewhere.

"Right," Astrid nods. She climbs back over Toothless, this time behind Hiccup, easing him into a sitting position with her arms holding him steady to her chest.

Toothless begins moving—quickly but steadily—through the forest. By the time they still have little more than a hundred metres before the treeline of the woods, Astrid can already hear the villagers: People yelling, scrabbling, grabbing weapons. Children are probably being ushered inside, adults gearing themselves to battle stations. As far as they knew, this was the certain Ragnarok that Hiccup had warned about (albeit a little bit late).

Up in the sky, the dragons gather. They don't attack, just circle overhead of Berk. They do exactly what Astrid needs them to do. As long as they stay here, Berk would stay out of her way.

When they reach the treeline, Astrid quickly climbs down. This is as far as she'll allow Toothless to go, for his safety and for the sake of their stealth. A nightfury in broad daylight doesn't exactly have the same effect that it does at night.

Hiccup, thankfully, doesn't look much worse for wear as she gets another good look at his face. Stable… probably isn't the best word, but it fills Astrid with enough hope to not consider the alternatives and keep moving. As she wraps each of her arms around his shoulders, she realizes she's probably going to have to drag him through the streets like this. It wouldn't be fast, but… it would work.

"Toothless, I need you to stay here," Astrid says as the dragon ducks down to help her pull Hiccup down gently. He must have been thinking the same thing, because once he's lay down in the grass he doesn't get back up again.

"I don't need a lot of time," She says as she begins to pull Hiccup away, walking backwards as she supports most of his weight from under his arms. The heels of his boots drag in the dirt, but it's about as good as she will be able to do.

Toothless groans and shakes his head, like he knows exactly what he's doing already and Astrid should be the one trying to catch up with the plan.

Smart dragon.

"I'll be back tomorrow, I promise!" Is the last thing she can say before Toothless is no longer visible from amongst the trees, and Astrid and her downed colleague are faced with an open, grassy field in broad daylight. If anyone were to be around…

She doesn't have time to dwell on the idea. She has to move forward, take as direct a path she can, and hope that no one was where they shouldn't be. The village has gone quiet, but that isn't a bad thing. It means that everybody is ready, waiting. If you're smart, your eyes are on the sky and nowhere else.

The streets are deserted, exactly as they should be, and aside from the sounds of Hiccup's boots on the gravel the pair of them make no sound at all. Astrid makes her way through the town, ducking from building to building, fueled by adrenaline and… something she recognizes as fear.

Fear. She was afraid. Not of the village, not really. They would never hurt her, but… if Hiccup got caught, she didn't know what they would do. Berk didn't have a prison, nor was it the kind of village that would be building one any time soon. But it also wasn't the kind of village that would... execute people, was it?

Astrid has always thought the answer to that question was no. But hearing the way Stoick talked about Hiccup, now she wasn't quite sure what the chief had in mind.

Looking over her shoulder, Astrid can see it: her house. In was in a more densely packed area of the village, but it was also far away from where anyone should be. Whereas most dragon attacks would have people swarming in this area to defend the buildings, the village's only priority in this situation was to stop Hiccup, meaning the plan was to stay on high ground in large groups near the catapults.

They continue to move forward.

If someone had noticed Astrid pulling a body along the streets, they probably would have confronted her. As long as no one—

"Astrid!"

She hears them yell her name before she sees them. Panicked, she stops her tread and looks around, frantically searching all directions. Was someone watching her from a window? Was someone out of the place they were supposed to be? Who was—

"Astrid!" She recognises the voice, feels her stomach curl at his insubordination… Gustav.

"Astrid, hey, Astrid!" He's running at her, coming from the direction she once came. Gustav has his sword clutched in one hand, Blaze trailing behind him with his spear. Those idiots, they weren't supposed to be anywhere near here. They weren't even supposed to be outside!

Astrid doesn't know what to do. She can't make it to the house, not fast enough to evade the boys. And she can't yell at them, because they won't listen to her. Maybe a combination…?

As an afterthought, she tips Hiccup's head forward so his chin rests on his chest. At least this way his bangs will cover some of his face.

"Gustav, Blaze, go inside!" She yells, hobbling her way to the house as quickly as she can. "Do you not see the sky; we're about to be attacked!"

"We're here to help!" Blaze calls back.

"This isn't a time to screwing around! This is serious, we can't afford for you two to get in the way of the plan!" Fifty metres…

"We won't, we promise!" Gustav yells back, and fifty metres is just too much, because a second later the boys are standing but a few away from her. They stop just short as their eyes fall on the body Astrid is holding between her arms.

Their eyes go wide. "Astrid… what…" Blaze begins.

"What happened?" Gustav finishes, staring at the top of Hiccup's head with a mixture of curiosity and mild horror.

"We… it…" The alarms are going off in Astrid's head, and she can barely formulate a sentence as her brain screams over and over: _Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie!_

"Is he dead?!" Blaze wails.

"No!" Astrid says, unfurling one first to hold a sympathetic palm towards the two boys. "He's just injured… and you two need to go to where you're supposed to be!"

"Can we help? Do you need help?"

"I need you guys to go home!" Astrid continues moving backwards, annoyed to the point she's nearly forgotten the situation. Maybe if she pretends she's not freaking out, the boys will leave her alone…

They continue to follow her. "Was it the dragons? Did the dragons do this?"

"Uh, yea."

Forty metres.

"Who is it? Is it someone we know?" Gustav asks, reaching his free hand forward towards Hiccup.

If Hiccup hadn't weighed so much, Astrid would have jerked him away with enough force to probably send him flying. But he does weigh that much, and she can barely move him out of the way, and before she can slap his hand away Gustav has his fingers on Hiccup's chin and is raising the rider's face upwards.

She's not entirely sure, but in that moment Astrid considers the idea she might be having a heart attack. This… well, this was the end of the road.

But the boys don't react the way she at all expects them to at all. Instead they just look puzzled as they study Hiccup's face.

Gustav looks at Blaze. "Do you know who this is?"

Blaze's eyebrows pull together. "Never seen him before." He looks up at Astrid. "This guy a trader or something?"

They didn't… recognize him?

…It was completely possible the boys hadn't gotten a proper look when Hiccup had announced himself to Berk weeks ago, but did they really not remember? Well, they had been little the last time Hiccup was seen on Berk—and the rider definitely had matured into another face, but…

Roll with it, Astrid, roll with it.

"This isn't the time, you guys!" She all but screams at them in normal fashion, this time pulling Hiccup away enough for Gustav to let his head drop. (The less they looked, the better).

Blaze rubs his chin. "No, that face does seem a bit familiar. He a logger or something?"

"Too skinny. Maybe a fisherman?"

"Ah, yea! I think I've seen him hanging around with Tuffnut!"

Thirty metres.

The boys jog to catch up with her. Astrid grits her teeth, but doesn't stop moving.

"Astrid, you sure we can't help?"

"You can help by being where you're supposed to!"

"Well, the dragons haven't _technically _attacked yet— "

"Boys, now!" She adds a tone of authority, and that seems to at least garner their attention.

Gustav frowns. "Fine, whatever. But we could have helped!"

The duo turns around, hopefully to go to where they're supposed to be, when Astrid remembers something.

"Wait!" She calls after them, but doesn't stop moving in the direction of the house.

The boys turn around eagerly. "Did you change your mind?" Blaze asks hopefully.

"No, I just… I need you guys not to tell anyone about this!"

They share a glance. "Why?"

"Because…" _Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie lie! _"Because we were on a mission handed down by the chief, and nobody is supposed to know, including you guys. It has to be a secret, otherwise—" She couldn't believe she was saying this. "—Hiccup might find out, and then we won't be able to stop him."

The boys share another glance, this one undeniably mischievous.

"Really?" Gustav asks.

"Yes…" Astrid grinds out. "You guys have to keep this a secret, too, otherwise he might find out."

"Awesome!" The two boys high five. "We're spies!"

"That's not exactly— "

"Super spies!" Gustav corrects.

"Boys— "

"Cool!" They hit their weapons against the other's.

"Get out of here!" Astrid barks, and the two boys grin at her.

"That's no way to talk to your partners!" Gustav laughs as the pair of them head back in the direction they came.

If Hiccup's life weren't on the line, Astrid probably would have fallen to her knees at the thought of what she'd just done. With the devil. Twin devils. Oh gods…

All that mattered right now was that they ate her lies, and that (even thought it was a problem that they had seen Hiccup's face) it wasn't an _immediate _problem. Hopefully by the time Gustav and Blaze got tired of being 'spies', Astrid and Hiccup would be long gone from Berk.

If the clock wasn't ticking before, it sure as Hel was now.

Then they reach the front steps of Astrid's house, and with three quick heaves and a little shimmying to get the door open, they're finally inside. They did it. She made it. And Hiccup… She holds a hand over his mouth. Still breathing, so not dead yet. Now…

It takes a little bit of effort to get him up the stairs, and a lot longer than she would have hoped. Astrid's arms are aching from the strain, and she tries to lay him on the bed as gently as possible even though her arms are screaming at her to drop him like a hot rock.

She starts by gathering the things she needs, stuff that's thankfully always kept in her room for these kinds of situations. A needle, salve, proper bandages. When that's all ready to begins on the wound, slowly pulling the leather string apart and peeling the fur cuff from Hiccup's side.

Blood runs out, but nothing unmanageable. For him to have made it this far, it must not have been as deep as she initially thought. But for her to treat it properly, the armour has to go.

Astrid's hands go the straps around Hiccup's middle, but freeze before they can do anything else.

Oh.

She's never… She hasn't…

A small, girlish part of her is delaying. The only person she's ever taken clothes off of before is herself, and even though this is life or death… it feels oddly intimate.

But then the feeling passes and she undoes one of the straps, then the other. The middle of the leather mesh is stitched together, so she pulls out her knife and gently pulls out the threads. (Who knew Hiccup really was so handy at making outfits?)

Astrid peels back the leather, readies her knife and cuts through the fabric of his shirt, careful not to disturb the wound as she tries to pull it away. Her eyes immediately go to the dark red hole in his side, but for a second they linger elsewhere as she notices a mark on his side.

She's tempted to stare at it, noticing how it curves around his back. But there isn't any more time, so she sets it out of her mind and sets to work.

.

.

.

Astrid did everything that needed to get done, in her usual efficient and soldier-like timing. She takes care of Hiccup, stitches him up. She cleans up after herself, _very _carefully. She goes downstairs, grabs extra water, blankets, and makes sure she hasn't left any incriminating evidence on the first floor. Obviously, her parents could never know she was harbouring a criminal in their loft space.

After that, after all of that was done… it was all about waiting. Waiting for her parents to come home, waiting for someone to come look for her… waiting for Hiccup to wake up.

She knew he was going to wake up. She'd done everything according to the book, and there had been no surprises along the way… so why wouldn't he? It's only been a couple hours, but for some reason Astrid is getting increasingly nervous.

Although she should be sitting next to him, with him, Astrid finds herself sitting on the floor, leaning against the back wall. She can't see his face from this angle, only his side, and she glances his way before looking back down at the floor. She wraps her arms around her knees, tucking into a ball.

Why didn't he just tell her that he'd been hurt? Why did they have to go through all of this—it all could have gone so differently if he'd just told her. Why would he do this to her, to himself?

When someone inevitably comes looking for her, she doesn't hide. But she doesn't give anyone the chance to come up to the loft, not Snoutlout when he first found her, or her parents when they came home later. She decides that the best excuse she could come up with was to (uncharacteristically) have been taking a nap in the middle of the day, and having slept through the entire thing. It was an ill-conceived excuse on paper, but combined with Astrid's stellar acting skill and credibility, neither questioned it.

They have dinner, business and usual, and her parents tell her about the dragons, and how brave the chief was, and how there was probably going to be some kind of meeting to talk strategy since the dragons didn't attack. (Astrid would probably have to go to that meeting).

She does her best not to glance at the staircase. (How was Hiccup doing?). But apparently her frustration was not well-hidden, because her father notices.

"Astrid, don't be upset." He says with the kind of minimal eye contact that made you wonder how he ever picked up on anything (besides food). "Everyone knows you know better than anyone what is expected of you, and how hard you work. The work you do for the village is invaluable, no one will mind this little hiccup."

Astrid looks over at him, hoping the surprise doesn't show on her face. It wasn't all too shocking that her father had noticed her expression, although he'd never had a prayer of really understanding why. But it dawns on her all too suddenly that she hadn't once thought about the village, and what they would think of her. All she could think about was Hiccup—the villagers hadn't even crossed her mind.

Maybe it wouldn't have bothered her because she knew they were never in any real danger, but… it didn't matter the commotion or panic she'd caused, because all that mattered was making sure Hiccup was okay.

She'd said she'd fight for Berk, for its inhabitants. She always thought she would, it was why she'd engaged Hiccup in the first place. But now it was all backwards… and it startled her to realize she didn't particularly care that her morals were mixed up.

Astrid goes along with her dad, pretends to be bothered so her parents could reassure her. And she pretends that what they say is helping her. But when given the opportunity, she races back upstairs, telling her parents she wants to be alone.

And for the first time since they'd arrived, Astrid sits at his bedside and holds his hand.

.

.

.

Astrid doesn't sleep, at least not that much. She's nervous, not much because her parents made it a habit of coming upstairs to check on her, but because any other person in the Hofferson household had the ability to climb the stairs, and if they did Astrid had to be ready to block and deter. Her house was probably the safest place on Berk for Hiccup to be right now—and it was still a dangerous situation.

When it gets late—really late—she can't help it anymore and dozes off by the stairs. But she falls asleep on high alert, and as a product of that, an unusual creak in the floorboards wakes her up again.

There's nobody coming up the stairs, and in the next instant Astrid looks over at the bed and sees the outline of Hiccup in the darkness, struggling to sit up.

Considering all the warm and fuzzy thoughts Astrid had of Hiccup just a few hours ago, her reaction is rather hostile. "What are you doing?" She hisses at him, rocking onto her feet and scurrying over to the bed.

She can't see much in the dark, but when she gets close enough she can make out the contours of Hiccup's face as he looks up at her. He freezes. "I'm… getting up." His voice is strained. "Where's my shirt?"

"Hiccup, you were stabbed and you passed out. Like Hel you're getting up!" She whispers, grabbing his shoulders and (gently) pushing him back. He looks annoyed but doesn't fight her.

"You need to rest." She says firmly.

He leans his head against the headboard. "I can't stay here. Your parents are right downstairs."

"It's not a discussion. I got you this far, didn't I? Have some faith."

"It's not that I don't believe in you, but I can handle it. It's nothing I haven't dealt with before."

By this time Astrid's eyes have adjusted to the dark, and she can see his eyes go wide as he cranes his head forward and looks up in her direction. His expression is vulnerable as he searches her face.

He doesn't say a word, but he wants to know if she'd seen. Seen the long, jagged scars that lined his side, and upon further inspection, slid into smooth skin on his opposite collarbone. If Astrid had money to bet, she'd say that they probably connected over his back. Of course, she saw; it was impossible not to notice.

Instead she looks away, over her shoulder where there's a lamp sitting on the table. She walks over, lights it, exhaling as the light pools a drowsy dim over the room. She doesn't turn around, unsure if he would be comfortable with her seeing him in the light.

"I noticed." Astrid says finally.

"Astrid—" But his sentence is cut short as he begins to cough aggressively. Astrid spins around at the noise, unable to keep her back to him. She feels her breath catch when his hand flies to his side.

"Ugh, I think I pulled a stitch." He groans, dropping his head back on the pillow as he grits his teeth.

"Hiccup, hold still!" Astrid whispers, rushing across the room to him again. She pulls the blanket back, exposing his chest, and sees blood quickly staining the bandages that covered his side.

"Don't move, I'll be right back." Astrid gets down and reaches under the bed to where she'd replaced her first aid kit. She places it on the bed, then grabs the stool from the corner and drags it over to the bedside. Sitting down, she opens the kit and begins pulling out supplies.

Carefully, she cuts away at the bandages and starts dabbing at the bleeding wound with a clean cloth. She works in silence, completely focused on clearing the area when she feels his eyes on her. She glances up at him quickly before looking back down at his side.

"You don't have to tell me about them if you don't want to." She says, addressing the question in his eyes.

"I know."

"So then stop acting like you've somehow offended me."

He doesn't say anything, and Astrid takes a moment to ask a somewhat-burning question. "So are you going to tell me why you didn't bother to tell me you were hurt until after you were unable to sit up?"

He continues to be silent. Astrid dips a finger into her jar of salve, dropping the paste on Hiccup's wound.

He hisses, the salve surely stinging. "My gods, Astrid, you trying to torture me for information?"

"Just a happy coincidence, but I could if you want."

He sighs, running a hand over his face. "I did something stupid."

"I think that was fairly obvious."

He chuckles softly, then winces as it affects his side. "No, I mean, after I found the trapper fort, I thought… I did something uncharacteristic."

She looks over at him briefly. "Like?"

"I thought… I dunno, after all the spiels you've had about other people, I thought for a second I could… reason with them, I guess. Maybe not to get them to stop trapping, people aren't _that _good, but at least to leave peacefully enough so I wouldn't have to kill them."

Astrid screws the lid back on the jar, placing it back in the box and shuffling through it to find her needle. She stops when she catches Hiccup staring at her, raising her face in his direction.

"I let my guard down," His face is flushed with anger. "and one of them _stabbed _me. Didn't get a very good shot in, but it was enough to give them time to escape. I let some of them get away after they tried to hurt you…" He reaches out, raises a hand slowly enough that she doesn't flinch when two of his fingers press lightly against her cheek.

(Astrid's heartbeat flutters a bit. _A bit_.)

"Why didn't you just tell me what happened?" She asks softly.

"Because I didn't want you to know. I made a mistake, I thought I could try something different, and it completely backfired on me. I've been hurt before, and I was able to handle it by myself."

She doesn't want to, she really doesn't, but his excuse (although better than what she expected) was less than acceptable, she has to be angry with him. Chancing his life on account of pride wasn't something she would let him get away with unscathed. So she pulls her face away from his hand, leaning back and continuing to search through her supplies box.

"That's no excuse, Hiccup. You can't deal with things like this on your own, and Toothless needs you to be healthy."

He drops his hand, his expression a little glum. (Good).

Astrid finds her needle and is busy looping it when he speaks again. "Remember when I kidnapped you with Stormfly and took you to that island?" He asks quietly.

"Yea. Screaming death island, I remember." She says, focused on getting the thread in the hole.

"It may have seemed like a lie at the time, but it wasn't. The screaming death is a really real dragon, and more dangerous than any dragon I've ever encountered. Even the red death can be controlled—but the screaming death obeys no one."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I tried to take the screaming death, and it nearly killed me. It ripped right through my armour, scarred me. If Toothless hadn't gotten me to safety, it _would _have killed me."

So that's… that explains the scarring on Hiccup's side. Although there were few secrets between them, Astrid was surprised that he was telling her this. It was so personal.

"I took care of myself." He continues. "It wasn't pretty, but I made it on my own, Astrid."

With the needle threaded, Astrid prepares to prick it into his flesh. Her hand is paused as the point touches his skin. "But you're not on your own anymore, Hiccup. You have me now. And when other people are relying on you, you can't be reckless like that."

He opens his mouth to say something, but Astrid pushes the needle in, and his mouth clamps shut as another hiss whistles between his teeth. "I didn't… think of that." He growls through the pain.

"I know," Astrid says, cutting the thread after tying a knot. "But after I found out of Toothless—the first time, I mean—I thought of us as friends. And I… the thought of losing you, Hiccup, I don't…" She's not sure how to finish the sentence, and not entirely sure how to keep talking without him noticing her chin is shaking, so she lowers her head, dabs at his would a few more times to clean it off, and starts wrapping the bandage over the new stitches.

The emotions come rushing back, everything she'd grappled with just earlier that day when she was so worried that Hiccup might die before she could even try to help him. The thought of him gone… she didn't even know how to handle it.

He's not saying anything, which worries her slightly. In no few words, she had said some pretty personal stuff. She was expecting a little more of a reaction, but doesn't comment, slightly embarrassed.

"So how'd you get me here, anyway? I was sure you were just going to turn me in." His change in direction stings a little, but Astrid immediately lets it go. All of these feeling she has… they were her own, and she shouldn't expect anything from him in return.

"A thank you would be nice." She says grudgingly, half forcing a small smile as she tosses the rest of the bandages back in the box.

He grins at her. "Thank you, Astrid, master of disguise."

"You can thank me by never doing that again."

"Well, I'm going to try and make a habit of _not _getting stabbed."

"Hiccup…" she says warningly.

"Okay, okay, I promise. You'll be the first to know the next time I need medical expertise."

"Good." Satisfied, Astrid slides her first aid kit back under the bed. She sits up straight on her stool. "Well, I've got a couple more hours until daybreak, so I'm going to get some more sleep."

She stands, but isn't able to take more than a step when Hiccup stops her. "Where are you going?" He asks.

She looks over at him, disgruntled. "By the stairs, that way I can make sure no one comes up without having to get by me."

"Won't your parents think it's a bit weird that you're sleeping by the stairs rather than on your bed?"

She didn't think of that. "I'll find a spot close to there, then."

"Don't be stupid, this is your bed. I'll sleep on the floor."

"Now you're being stupid. You're not sleeping on the floor, you're hurt."

"Astrid…"

"Hiccup." She sighs. "You need to let someone else take care of you. You need to accept that, from now on… you're not going to be alone."

He stares at her, face blank. She can't tell what he's thinking, or if her words mean anything to him. Then, the corner of his mouth turns up in a smile. "Alright." He nods.

"Good." Astrid says, marching over to the lamp and putting it out. The room of submersed in the darkness of night once again, and Astrid finds a nice, comfortable looking wall to sit against. She folds her arms over her chest and closes her eyes.

"Thank you for saving me, Astrid." Hiccups says in the darkness. "Seriously… thank you."

"You're welcome." Astrid replies.


	16. The Girl Must Choose

**A/N: Hello again, people of the interweb! I feel like I just have to say this again, because my mind is so blown-thank you everyone for your incredible support of this story! I didn't expect to get even half the response I've gotten. Thank you all so much, I love reading your reviews!**

**So there's a few things in this chapter that I feel I should give some history on, since I try to be as canon-compliant as possible. If anyone ever watched the show, they did a whole episode on dragon traps (Zippleback Down). (It was a twin-centric episode, really funny for those of you who haven't seen it). So the dragon traps are canon, but I completely made up how the roper works, I just inferred from how they deactivate it. Also, as the name may suggest, it has a rope instead of a chain. But I figured that didn't make any sense, since a dragon could easily burn up the rope... or burn up the actual roper unit... design flaws... so I tried to improve it as best I could. **

**Also, glowworms are from the books, not sure why they never made it into anything else since they're incredibly useful. The wiki classifies them as nanodragons, how cute.**

**Onward!**

* * *

"That's it, I'm done. I've officially gone stir crazy. I demand to be put down like the house cat that I've become." Astrid looks up from her book to see Hiccup lying spread eagled on the floor, eyes closed. She could have confused him as being asleep had he not had a massive grin on his face.

"Don't be silly, Hiccup. Being a housecat would mean that you had some semblance of agility or cuddliness. You're more like a house turtle."

"Gee, I feel better now." He sits up, stretching his arms above his head as he goes. It was a slow, cautious stretch—not nearly the range that Hiccup had on a normal day—and it reminds Astrid of why she has kept him cooped up in the house for the past couple weeks as he mended.

"You know you're not even close to completely healed. When I say you're ready, you can leave."

He sighs but doesn't stop smiling, and Astrid suspects her concern for his well-being is much more appreciated that he's letting on. Although he's been behaving relatively the same for the past few weeks, this is the first time Astrid can remember where Hiccup is satisfied with doing nothing. Even when they were kids, he was always on the move, but she couldn't recall a time when he'd been so cooperative in staying inside for days on end.

Climbing to his feet, Hiccup comes to sit down on the bed next to her. He puts an arm around her, his chin resting on her shoulder as he glances down at the page of her book.

This kind of thing was new, too. Touching her, more often than before. They'd grown comfortable with each other in the past weeks—as came with living with someone in the close quarters that was Astrid's room. It was as if Hiccup were trying to make up for all the time he'd spent alone by contacting another human being as much as possible.

On a regular day Astrid brought him books, changed the bandages on his side. Hiccup rearranged things around the house while everyone was out for the day—not enough to make it seem someone had been there, but just enough to send the Hofferson family into a tizzy about misplaced items and forgetfulness.

Considering he was an alien resident, the entire set up worked quite well. But more and more, Astrid could see it in his eyes: the need to get out, to adventure again. They both knew he wasn't meant to be domesticated, no matter how much he was trying to follow her rules.

"But it's so boring here." He whines playfully. "And I appreciate you taking time to fly Toothless, but we've never been apart for this long. He must think I'm dead!"

Astrid looks over at him, immediately notices their proximity, and turns back to ta face her book. Too close, way too close. "He doesn't think you're dead."

"How do you know?"

"Do you think I'd still be here if he thought you were dead and I was lying?"

Hiccup only groans in response, burying his face in her shoulder. "Please, Astrid?" His voice is muffled by her armour. "You even said yourself I've been really good, I'll be there and back before you know it."

Astrid sighs, folding her book closed and turning her head in his direction. He may be begging like a child, but Hiccup was an adult enough—she should trust him if he thinks he's ready to go flying again. If she has to be honest, he was ready enough for some lax flying on his own. But…

"I promise it'll be sometime soon." She says.

"That doesn't sound very difinitive."

Smiling, Astrid stands and puts her book on the bedside table. She makes an effort to spend time with him, just so he wouldn't be so lonely, but she really did have to get to work. Grabbing her axe from its usual spot, she points it at Hiccup right before she heads down the stairs. "I'll take a look at your side tonight, and we'll see."

"I'll be here!" Hiccup faux salutes her, grinning widely.

With that reassurance, Astrid clambers down the stairs. It's late morning, and her parents have already left for their jobs. She should get a move on, too, but… She isn't looking forward to today. She didn't want to tell Hiccup because it would only upset him, but today was the final day of dragon training. Rebuilding the arena started two weeks ago, and today Gothi was going to choose which trainee would get to, as tradition dictates, kill their first dragon in front of all of Berk. Stoick was determined not to let Hiccup get in the way of Berk's traditions, and had made sure that this day would happen.

Astrid just hopes she'll be able to keep Hiccup inside long enough not to find out. If he knew they were still going to go forward with killing a dragon in the arena, well… he might not react favourably.

But thinking back on it, she would have saved herself so much grief had she not been so preoccupied with keeping Hiccup oblivious as to miss the creak of the wooden pane as the rider jumps out of the upstairs window.

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.

.

When she arrives, the arena is packed with people, but not on the sidelines like they're supposed to be. The centre is crowded with Vikings, doing what, exactly, Astrid can't make out. Her trainees stand by the gate, huddled together with weapons in hand and wide eyes. They knew better than anyone that this was not supposed to be happening on their big graduation day.

"What's going on?" Astrid asks Gustav, who looks up at her worriedly.

"No idea. They were here before us, and no one will tell us anything." He frowns at the crowd. "Are the trials going to be cancelled, Astrid?" He asks.

"Hm. Not if I have something to say about it." Astrid says, moving past her students and into the arena. Like Hel she'd allow the trials to be postponed, not when Hiccup was already begging to get out. He may be acting passively towards her, but Astrid knows he won't stay docile, especially if he finds out about the trials. He still believes he is that evil person, and he won't hesitate if he feels like the arena dragons are under threat.

Marching into the crowd, the other Vikings see her coming and part ways out of natural respect for the master of the arena. Halfway towards the front she notices that the door to the zippleback's cage is strewn wide open, and there's no dragon in sight. Something is really wrong for nobody to be up in arms about an escaped dragon.

Astrid reaches the front, to where everybody is looking, and as soon as she does she stops cold. The zippleback isn't missing, like she thought. It was lying on the ground, belly up, clearly dead. Her hand flies to her mouth. The dragon didn't look wounded, its scales unblemished, but then…

"How did this happen?" Astrid demands, her voice a little more hysterical than it ought to be as she turns to the nearest person.

They look scared, raising their hands in the air as if Astrid had just accused them of murder.

Just then, a commotion starts at the back as Stoick and Spitelout arrive, the latter toting a wheel barrow of weapons.

"Stoick!" Astrid calls out, pushing back through the crowd to get to the chief. Somebody here has to have an explanation, and the chief was going to give her one.

Spitelout continues to push the wheelbarrow towards the others as Stoick stops to talk to her. "What happened to my dragon?" Astrid asks, the anger evident in her voice.

The chief shakes his head. "Gobber came to check on them this morning, and he found the zippleback already dead. Its gums turned black; looks like it may have been fed changewing poison."

"Poisoned?" Astrid echoes. "Why would someone poison it?"

"I can't be sure. I think maybe with the near attacks and sightings someone must be frustrated that Hiccup isn't coming, thought to take it out on what Hiccup holds most dear."

"So they think it's okay to go around poisoning my dragons?!" Astrid says, clearly furious. It was infuriating to think there was someone on the island that thought they needed to make a _statement _in this way. "Wait, what about the gronckle?"

"The gronckle's fine, but nothing can be helped now. We'll dispose of the body today, tomorrow we can have the trials."

"Did Gobber check that it wasn't sick, too?" She asks urgently.

Stoick puts his hand on Astrid's shoulder, looking down at her with concern. "Astrid, you need to calm down. The gronckle isn't sick, I made sure of it myself. I may not want the dragons around, but our enemies—" (Stoick's new way of saying 'Hiccup') "—do, and from what I've seen they care about the dragons enough to keep postponing attacks. I'm not going to allow anything to happen to that Gronckle. Spitelout is going to set up a twenty-four-hour guard to prevent this from happening again."

Astrid blinks once. She wasn't sure if she liked the idea of someone watching the gronckle, or if that was just a massive overstep to the problem of people going rogue under the chief's orders. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Absolutely. It'll keep the gronckle protected, and keep watch on the arena just in case our enemies arrive."

Ah. So _that's _what this is about.

"Now, go explain to the kids and I'll deal with the clean up here." Stoick says, dropping his hand and nodding towards the huddle of teenagers still standing by the gate.

"Okay, thanks." Astrid begins to walk past, but stops as an immediate issue presents itself to this new plan. With only one dragon left…

"Wait, Stoick." She pauses as he turns around. "I didn't let the kids practise with the zippleback because we were supposed to use it for the winner to kill, but they've already trained with the gronckle, and they're going to fight it again tomorrow. What are we supposed to use for the winner's fight?"

Stoick doesn't hesitate in answering, which makes his response extra-creepy. "A nightfury."

Astrid feels her mouth go dry. "A nightfury? But… we don't have one of those."

"We'll get one soon enough. The children can wait until then." Stoick says, and as if that were the end of the conversation, he walks off towards the crowd surrounding the zippleback.

Stoick wants to put the winner of dragon training in the ring with a _nightfury_? Besides the fact that a nightfury would completely dismantle any one of her trainees, what he said had some pretty heavy implications. He still has plans to capture Hiccup, and he's confident that they would be successful.

Unsure on how to process all this, Astrid wanders back to her students to explain the situation.

.

.

.

After talking to the trainees, Astrid decides the only thing left to do is go home. If she really wanted to she could stay behind to help with the dragon carcass, but that kind of disposal didn't… sit well with her. Dragons were so large, even before she'd developed a new outlook on them it was pretty hard to watch a body disposal go down. Now, knowing what she knew, the thought of being around for something like that was nearly unimaginable. The poor zippleback…

Besides, Hiccup really wasn't kidding when he compared himself to a housecat—the poor guy is trapped inside her house all day, forced to lay around and nap. He'd probably be happy for some company.

She just has to convince him to stay inside for one more day. Tomorrow the final test of dragon training would commence, Gothi would pick a champion, and then Stoick would be trapped in the eternal waiting game for his nightfury. Hiccup wouldn't get caught, especially with (and she hated thinking about it like this) her as an inside man preventing this.

Stoick's convoluted plan actually helps her a lot, since Astrid has been struggling for the past few days on what she would do about the kill ring. It felt immoral to stand around and let a dragon get killed just so she wouldn't give up her position. Hiccup wouldn't stand for it, and neither should she.

This whole 'double agent' thing… it was getting harder and harder to balance. She was starting to wonder if she even _could _continue to balance it.

This big plan that she'd been cooking up in the past few weeks—the one that would show Vikings that dragons weren't at all what they thought—it was really ready to go at any moment. Astrid just had to find that moment, and she'd wondered for a while if it would be cliché to do it on the same day Hiccup did. Now, it didn't seem like there was any rush… which made picking the opportune date and time all the much harder.

Arriving home, Astrid climbs the stairs to the front porch. Her parents aren't home at this time of the day, and the main floor is empty. She's about to call out to Hiccup when someone begins frantically knocking on the door.

Sighing to herself, she turns back around and opens the door. Ruffnut stands on the other side, hands on hips, flanked on both sides by Snoutlout and Fishlegs.

Astrid raises an eyebrow. "What's going on, here?"

Ruffnut looks over at Snoutlout. "Why don't you tell her?"

The Viking under scrutiny pouts. "Why me?"

"Because it's your fault we're here!"

"Guys!" Astrid raises her hands, stopping the impending argument. "Just tell me."

"Tuffnut's in trouble!" Fishlegs squeaks as Snoutlout and Ruffnut continue to glare at each other.

"What kind of trouble?" She asks hesitantly.

"Er," Fishlegs looks suddenly uncomfortable. "He got caught… in a dragon trap."

"He what?!" Astrid's outburst causes her three friends to cringe back. "How did he get caught in a dragon trap? Oh gods, what kind of trap?"

"Nothing too serious, he's all in one piece! It was just a roper." He says the last part quietly, as if his tone wouldn't send Astrid into a panic.

(A roper—considered second deadliest only to the snapper, witch clamps down hard enough on a dragon to cut off an appendage—was a cannon-like trap that, when activated, shot a chain with a weight on the end meant to wrap around a dragon's neck ideally. It would reel them in, and if the dragon struggled against the chain it would continue to reel, tightening the hold until the dragon either subsided or suffocated to death. It was _not _a trap to joke around with.)

"How did Tuffnut get caught in a roper? Why didn't anyone get him out?!"

"It was an accident; he wasn't paying attention!" Snoutlout says defensively. "None of us know how to deactivate dragon traps, if we messed around with it we were afraid he would get hurt!"

"I—" Astrid nods. She knew how to deactivate all of the dragon traps Berk had, it was part of her job. "Okay, take me there I'll get him out." She steps outside, shutting the door behind her. Hiccup would have to wait just a little bit longer; this took precedent.

.

.

.

Fishlegs leads the way through the woods, the rest of the group following closely behind him. As long as Tuff didn't struggle, he would be fine. But that didn't mean any of them felt like there wasn't a rush. Tuff was prone to trouble, he could just as easily put himself into danger trying to chase after a butterfly.

As they walk, Astrid begins to notice something. Fishlegs, Snoutlout and Ruffnut—they were armed… and not the everyday kind. Snoutlout has his hammer, Ruffnut has her mace on her belt. Even Fishlegs has a couple of knives on him. These aren't the kinds of things you'd be carrying around for a leisurely walk in the woods, it was the kind of stuff you carry around if you are going to fight. She would bet that Tuffnut has a weapon on him, too.

"What were you guys doing out here, anyway?" She asks as they walk.

Snoutlout and Ruffnut share a rather nervous glance. Astrid notices. "Guys, what were you doing in the woods?" She asks again, testier this time.

"Dragon hunting." Snoutlout says at the exact same time Fishlegs says something about enjoying nature.

Astrid glowers that them. "You guys are carrying weapons and came to me instead of Gobber." She lists off. "What are you hiding?"

Ruffnut looks over at her indecisively, but after a moment's staring gives in. "We've been… looking for Hiccup."

Astrid looks at them incredulously. "What?" She splutters.

"You may have given up on the idea," Fishlegs says. "But there's a reason no one's seen him, even though we know he's here. He used to go into the woods all the time, we figured he might be coming here for something. It makes sense, Astrid."

"We didn't tell you because we knew you wouldn't be happy about it." Ruffnut says. "You got so defensive the last time."

"You guys have been out in the woods during your free time, hunting for Hiccup?" Astrid feels like she needs to hear it again. Was everybody on the island coming up with plans to catch Hiccup? This was getting crazy… this was getting Tuffnut caught in life-threatening traps and getting the arena dragons killed. This was putting Hiccup, Toothless and Stormfly in danger, when so many people were looking out for the dragon rider.

"I knew she wouldn't approve." Snoutlout says, rolling his eyes. "At least we're trying _something, _Astrid. There's a reason he's not showing, and we're going to find it."

This… this was getting insane. She had to diffuse this. "Maybe he's not coming back, guys. Have you even found anything?" She says.

"Well, we don't know what we're looking for, exactly." Fishlegs says. "But Hiccup is smart, he tricked us before and he's probably doing it again."

Ruffnut nods. "He's manic, even you can see that. Once you go off the deep end, there's no going back. We have to try to stop him even if you don't want us to, we have to do what's right and protect the village."

"I…" Astrid doesn't know what to say. Hiccup could be redeemed; she just knew it. But if she let him go out flying again, and he ran into the group, would he really exercise restraint?

She swallows her anxiety. "You guys should have told me. What if something happened; no one else would know where you went."

"I know you said he was strong, but he can't be strong enough to take all of us out." Snoutlout snorts.

"He has a nightfury." Astrid counters.

He shrugs, pounding the head of his hammer into his opposite palm. "I've killed dragons before. If Hiccup can get close to one, then so can I. I could do it better, even."

"It's not exactly—"

"Tuffnut!" Ruffnut interrupts as the group comes into sight of the missing Viking and the dragon trap. Just like they had said, Tuffnut is stuck in the roper. He's leaning against the contraption that shot the weight, the chains wrapped loosely around his torso and once around his neck. He's standing very still, but his expression is strained and his hands are balled up, and it's not hard to see why.

There's someone else standing right next to the trap, just outside the limits the chain would allow Tuff to move before they tightened. He's got his foot sticking underneath the cannon, and in one hand, a sword.

Astrid doesn't know how to react. If she had something in her hands, she either would have dropped it or thrown it at that moment.

"Hiccup?" Fishlegs says cautiously, staring at the boy standing next to the trap.

"Put the sword down." Ruffnut growls. "Don't you dare hurt him."

Hiccup doesn't drop his arm, or the sword. "You guys got here at a really awkward time." He says it almost sheepishly, as if it didn't look like he was about to decapitate Tuff and instead they'd interrupted him while he was on his way to the bathroom.

His eyes are deliberately avoiding hers. He already knows—if he got out of this alive, she was so going to kill him for disobeying her.

"Put the sword down." Ruff repeats.

Hiccup frowns. "I have to cut the chain to get him out, or did you want him to die?" He says, motioning with his free hand at the chains as if it wasn't obvious enough.

(Gods, why did he have to be so damn cocky? It was half the problem!)

"You don't have to talk like I'm not here." Tuff grumbles quietly. "It's rude to use a pronoun when the person is standing right in front of you."

"We don't trust you, put the sword down and back off!" Snoutlout yells. He takes a deliberate step forward in an attempt to be daunting.

Hiccup sighs animatedly, not scared in the least. "Okay, you guys, I know you're intimidated or trying to be intimidating or whatever, but I already pulled out the latch key. So if I take my foot off the activation line now—" He acts suddenly, turning the sword downwards in a smooth arc and shattering the chain with the side of the blade. Not a second is wasted as Hiccup takes off running in the opposite direction.

"After him!" Snoutlout yells, raising his weapon and following behind Hiccup at top speeds. Fishlegs follows suit, scrambling after Snoutlout.

Astrid turns and runs after Fishlegs. Her mind is reeling to make sense of the situation, to at least come up with some kind of plan, but there's too much to decide. It was like the gods had finally decided her time was up, and they wanted her to make a decision _now. _

Hiccup is injured, and even if he was fast enough to outrun Snoutlout before, he wasn't now. If he didn't want to tear his wound, he may not be fast enough to outrun any of them. But Astrid also knew he would rip open his side before he'd let himself get caught, which could very well kill him...too.

(There was really no good way for this to end).

Fishlegs isn't but a few paces ahead of her, and Snoutlout a few before that. From over Snoutlout's shoulder she can see Hiccup running, and then he jumps and… disappears.

Snoutlout comes to an abrupt stop, and when they catch up Astrid can see why: a hole in the ground, wide, man-made. No, but it wasn't just a hole, she realizes as she leans over the side, a single side bled into darkness.

"A tunnel?" Astrid thinks aloud.

"There were always rumours that there were tunnels that run under Berk." Fishlegs says breathlessly.

Snoutlout clearly doesn't think about it. "I don't care; I'm going to catch him!" He jumps into the hole and disappears into the tunnel.

"He's right." Fishlegs says and jumps in after him.

Astrid can hear the sound of the twins running in the woods to catch up. Sighing to herself, she leaps into the hole and into the tunnel after them.

It's dark, obviously. She's just a few metres inside and already the sunlight from the outside can't reach far enough to light the inside. The tunnel gets wider, cavernous, which only accentuates the darkness. She keeps moving forward, cautiously, running a hand along the wall so as not to get lost.

"Snoutlout? Fishlegs?" Astrid calls out, hoping he haven't gotten that far ahead. There's no response as her exclamation echoes along the tunnel, and she continues to walk forward quickly. The floor is made up of clay and mud—the same stuff that had covered Tuffnut when he'd fallen in that hole, she notes—and her boots make a squishing noise that make the darkness feel eerie.

Then, up ahead, Astrid sees light—tiny, faintly glowing pinpricks. Moving towards them, the tunnel fills with a dim light and the closer she gets the farther ahead she can see. Looking up, it's as if there are tiny suns planted in the ground and the walls. Out of curiosity she reaches out and touches one—it feels smooth, and a second later, she nearly yelps when the little light squirms out of the dirt, poking a tiny head in her direction.

It was like a small worm, but a second later the worm wiggles out of the dirt completely, tiny wings fluttering to life as the little… thing flies over to Astrid, landing on her shoulder. The short flight couldn't have been more than a hundred centimetres, but it looked absolutely pooped already.

Glowing… worm… dragons?

That was new.

Careful not to step on any of them, Astrid begins to move faster through the tunnel. Up ahead she hears the sound of scuffling echoing back to her. Then Snoutlout yelling something incoherent. She rounds a corner and walks into a large cavity, a room twice as wide as the tunnel. Astrid is suddenly surrounded by a feeling of dampness; water pools in cracks in the rocky floor, dripping down from the stalactites above. The glowing worms are stuck in the walls, filling the cavern with a warm light. There's an exit-esque looking thing directly ahead of her, and by the look of the three boys standing off in the near centre of the room, Hiccup didn't make it that far.

Before Astrid can say or do anything, Snoutlout jumps at Hiccup. He swings his hammer ferociously and Hiccup dodges, jumping back enough but falling over.

Hiccup groans, a hand going to his side. He wasn't in any condition to be fighting, a realization that was clearly evident on his face.

Snoutlout stands a few metres away, bouncing on his feet, obviously hesitant. He holds his hammer near his face in a defensive position. For all the smack he talked about stopping Hiccup, he was still nervous about facing off against the person who had beat Astrid Hofferson.

Hiccup laughs darkly, and Astrid knows he's being purposefully agitating. "I thought after all this time, Snoutlout, you'd have better aim. And Fishlegs," He looks over at Snoutlout's silent companion, grinning. "I thought you'd have more _guts._"

"It doesn't matter how evil you are," Fishlegs squeaks. "I won't fight a defenseless man! It's called honour, something you clearly know nothing about!"

Coughing once, Hiccup shakes his head. "Obviously not." He rolls to his feet, his hand going to the retractable sword on his belt. He pulls it out, unfurling it. "Which means I don't hold back." He says, lowering himself into a fighting stance.

"Enough!" Astrid yells loud enough to send her voice bouncing around the cavern. The three boys turn in her direction, Snoutlout and Fishlegs light up with a certain optimism while Hiccup just grits his teeth. He didn't want her to be here.

Stalking over to Snoutlout's side, she glares at Hiccup. "Are you _seriously _going to fight your friends?"

"They're not my friends." He growls. "They never were."

"It doesn't matter what we are, Astrid." Snoutlout snarls. "We have to stop Hiccup before he can hurt anyone else. We have to kill him now or die trying. There's not going to be chance like this again!"

"He's right, we have no choice." Fishlegs reasons. "Diplomacy is not an option."

Astrid ignores them. "You can't do this, Hiccup. You're not this person; you're not meant to do this."

Hiccup frowns deeply, exhaling heavily as he tried to catch his breath. "The Hiccup you used to know was weak. He couldn't stand up to you guys, and he couldn't stand up for what was right. If you had won on the last day of dragon training, like you were always meant to, I would never have done what I did. Things might be completely different. But I am _not_ him anymore, and I will not back down from defending what I believe in." He smiles again, and it's different from the kind of smile she's grown used to seeing in the past few weeks. It's chilling, sinister, and downright deranged. It looked like the smile of a true villain, the only kind of person that would be able to smile in a situation like this.

But… Astrid knew Hiccup was _not _this person. He pretended, continued to play this character that wasn't him. But he wasn't just lying to them, he was lying to himself. She'd seen it over and over again, the characteristics that still made him the person he always was. Hurting or even killing Snoutlout and Fishlegs would never allow him to see the truth he was hiding from.

"Neither will I!" Astrid says, and against Fishlegs' protest she crosses the space between the two sides and goes to stand in front of Hiccup. "I don't believe that you are what you say you are. I've seen too much to think otherwise. If you want to get to them, you're going to have to go through me." With one finger she scoops up the little glowing worm on her shoulder and drops it onto Hiccup's.

Hiccup stares at her blankly, not even looking at the worm. "Astrid, what are you doing?"

"Astrid, get away from him!" Snoutlout yells.

When Hiccup doesn't move, Astrid leans forward and grabs his hand holding the sword, angling it downwards so the tip pressed into her belly. Hiccup stares at her like she's lost her mind, his jaw set in anger.

Astrid looks at him determinedly. "You need to decide, right now: what do you believe in? Life or death?"

Although it seemed like a loaded choice to Astrid, Hiccup barely takes a moment's thought. He looks into her eyes, and within the second his sword retracts back into the hilt.

"I would never hurt you, Astrid." He says, his expression serious as he grabs her arms. "Don't… _do_ stuff like that."

"Then why me, but not them?" She asks defiantly.

"You're different. You know you're different."

She shakes her head. "I'm not, I'm just like them. And like it would hurt you to hurt me, it will hurt you to hurt them." She says softly.

"I'm sorry," Snoutlout bellows angrily, and the two turn to look at him. "Did I _miss _something? Astrid, what's going on?!"


	17. The Girl Gets Kissed

**A/N: Hey, everybody! So, so, so, so, so (you get the idea) sorry this took so long. I had the chapter pretty much done a while ago, but finishing it up proved challenging. I'd just like to remind everyone that I have no intentions of ever not finishing this story. If I didn't finish this, it would never feel right to start anything else. Anyway, this chapter is a wee bit longer than usual, the last scene being something I was saving for the next chapter, but I just felt so bad for making you all wait that, well, I hope you like it. Or maybe you'll hate me for where I ended it, I'm not sure. **

**It may seem impossible to imagine but there are only about (roughly) 3-4 planned chapters left to go. And as much as I love writing this I'm ready to take advantage of my prolonged summer to get a lot of writing done and start some new stuff, so my big plan is to have this all wrapped up in, say, twenty days or so. I'm not sure if it's possible, but I'm going to give it a try. That means updates less than once a week, yay!**

**I hope you like this chapter and sorry for the long wait, you guys are the best and I love all of your support!**

* * *

Astrid and Hiccup both turn in Snoutlout's direction as he stares at them, wide-eyed. Although he sounds angry, his expression says he was otherwise confused. He frantically looks back and forth between the pair.

"Why are you guys talking like you _know _each other?" He demands angrily, but his jaw is quivering.

Fishlegs, who'd been unsurprisingly quiet during the entire confrontation, finally speaks up. "Astrid… are you working with Hiccup? Is that why you didn't want us to go out looking for him?"

"No, Fishlegs, that's not it at all." She responds immediately, her voice modest. "I know how it looks, but there's so much to explain. You guys just have to give me a chance to get through it all."

"Wait, Astrid—" Hiccup begins, but Astrid cuts him off as she turns to face him, glaring.

"You don't say a word unless I tell you to, understand? I've had enough of your bad attitude making everything worse!" She yells at him.

Hiccup looks skeptical. "I'm not—"

"Not another word!" She threatens, pushing his hands back. "Don't you think I forgot that you snuck out when I told you not to! Now be quiet; I'm going to tell them the truth!"

"I don't trust them!" Hiccup argues.

"Well, I do, so deal with it! This is as much my problem as it is yours!"

Before anyone can say anything else, the twins, having finally caught up, come rampaging into the cavern.

"Whoa," Tuffnut's voice goes bouncing around the room as he suddenly stops in place. "Why do I sense a devilish twist in the plot?"

"Because Astrid's a traitor!" Snoutlout yells, pointing in her direction. "She's been helping Hiccup while he's been trying to kill us!"

"Shut up, Snoutlout! You know that's not true!" Astrid yells back at him.

"No, I don't! You're supposed to be on our side! And you're not, _you aren't_! You're standing over there, with him! People in the village look up to you; you're on the Berk council for Thor's sake! How could you do this to us?!" Snoutlout is breathing heavily by this point, his face a mask of rage, and even as his accusations stop echoing around the cavern no one says anything.

Astrid sighs heavily. Up until this point… it had never really occurred to her what her actions would mean to her friends. They had the utmost faith in her, and she was letting them down. "You're right, Snoutlout. I—I'm sorry. Really, I am. But I didn't betray you, I'm trying to help. A lot has changed since you all last say Hiccup."

"I don't give a yak crap! If you hadn't stepped in, he was going to fight us! It doesn't seem like he's changed to me!"

"I was only going to fight you because you wanted to fight me!" Hiccup responds loudly. Astrid shoots him a glare.

Fishlegs steps forward, touching Snoutlout on the shoulder. "Snoutlout, calm down."

He shakes his shoulder away. "I'm not the one who's reacting badly, you guys need to… _hype up_! Astrid has been lying to us!"

"But it's _Astrid_, Snoutlout! You know we can trust her, just let her explain!" Fishlegs yells back.

"_Trust her? _Have you lost your mind? We trusted Hiccup, too, and look at all the things he's done!"

"He freed me from the trap!" Tuffnut jumps in to the conversation. "Hiccup could have chopped my head off, but he didn't. I want to hear what they have to say."

Ruffnut puts a hand on her brother's back. "Me too."

The trio stare in Snoutlout's direction, his weapon head pointing in the direction of his gaze as he sets his jaw. "Fine." He glances over at Astrid and Hiccup. "But this doesn't mean I trust either of you. And it doesn't mean I'm not going straight to Stoick once we're outta here."

Astrid nods solemnly, almost shocked she could even earn a moment of their attention. If it had been any of them in her position, she most definitely wouldn't have wanted to hear their reasoning. Heck, she probably would have attacked already. But this was her only chance… to gain what, exactly, she wasn't really sure. The trust of her friends, Hiccup's safety, her freedom to remain on Berk… any or all of the above would be great.

"When I told you guys about almost catching Hiccup in the arena… I didn't tell the entire truth. We spoke with each other… even though it was in between a fight." Astrid goes on to explain everything they'd talked about that night. She recounts him showing up on her window sill the night after he revealing his intentions to Berk. Then the incident and her kidnapping with the baby nadders, all the way until the attack on the trapping post and nearly up until this moment in time. She tells them about what she saw, what she learned, how everything they thought they knew they really didn't.

She looks over at Hiccup as she tells them about how Hiccup had decided not to destroy Berk when he'd promised he would, how he was only trying to defend the dragons, that he was going to leave peacefully.

By the looks on their faces, Astrid can tell it's a lot of information to absorb. Hiccup had been enemy number one for past weeks, and here she was presenting the argument that he wasn't an enemy to them at all, just a protector of dragons. It did seem… a little far-fetched.

Fishlegs stares at them with wide eyes. "But Astrid… the dragons, they've killed so many of us. They're monsters."

"They're just defending themselves, that's all." Hiccup responds, but his tone is diplomatic so Astrid says nothing.

"How is it defence when you send them after us?" Ruffnut says.

"I never wanted anyone to get hurt. They were just supposed to wreck the village so you would all leave."

"You were going to send them to kill us all!" Snoutlout yells.

"But I didn't! I changed my mind!" Hiccup argues, and as Snoutlout opens his mouth to retort, the dragon-rider raises his hands in a sign of deference. "Listen, my morality and whatever is all Astrid's department. I just do what I do. But you can't be angry at her, because if it wasn't for her Berk would have been gone a long time ago. I don't care if I'm still the enemy, but don't treat her like one; not after everything she's done to protect this place."

"What the Hel." Tuffnut grunts. "Even when he's the bad guy he's still as righteous as ever."

"Hardly." Snoutlout scoffs. "He's wrong. Just wrong. Dragons aren't good, they can't be. They're just as twisted as he is."

"I can prove it to you." Hiccup says, and Astrid recognizes a hopeful glimmer in his voice. It's the same as when he'd told her he'd show her why Toothless wasn't bad all those years ago. "Come and meet my dragon. You'll see for yourself."

"So you can trap us and roast us? I don't think so!" He jeers back. "We're going to tell Stoick and get you exiled, Astrid! It doesn't matter how much Hiccup loves dragons or how noble you say his cause is, he turned against us and is therefore our enemy!" He glares at Astrid. "And anyone who associates with him is our enemy, too!"

"Don't you dare, Snoutlout! This is about me, leave Astrid out of it!" Hiccup growls, and he looks like he's about to walk over to him when Astrid catches his arm instead.

"It doesn't have to be kill or be killed!" Astrid yells as she stands in between them. "Don't you get it, Snoutlout? We can live in peace, there doesn't have to be a war, not between us and Hiccup and not between us and dragons! This is our chance to change everything, and we can't throw it away because you're afraid of change!"

She wasn't entirely sure who she was yelling at as she neared the end of her speech—Hiccup or Snoutlout. Both of them needed to see that change is possible, if only it is given a chance. Life as a Viking didn't have to be only one way.

While both Hiccup and Snoutlout continue to stare each other down, Fishlegs steps forward and catches Astrid's attention. "It sounds crazy, but if everything you're saying is real, then…" He shakes his head. "I want to believe you, Astrid. But it sounds too good to be true."

"We believe her!" Ruffnut pipes in, and all heads swivel in the direction of the twins.

Snoutlout's eyes bug out. "_You do?_"

The pair stand side-by-side, shoulders lightly touching. "All we do all day long is take chances. The chance to change Berk is one we'll gladly take." Ruffnut finishes.

"And you can't say it wouldn't be awesome to have a monstrous nightmare as _a pet!_" Tuffnut says excitedly.

"That doesn't make any sense!"

"Astrid has never been wrong. She's the most loyal to Berk out of all of us."

Fishlegs looks at the twin thoughtfully. "And her influence is the only reason why someone as Hel-bent as Hiccup would choose _not _to destroy the village when he could have easily done so, judging by the skrills."

Ruffnut smiles gleefully. "I knew you would agree!" She leaps forward and (as best she could) wraps her arms around Fishlegs' large midsection.

Snoutlout glares all around. "You're all crazy. You've all let him manipulate you! He was a bad seed, right from the start, and now you're all letting him play you!"

"Snoutlout, come on—" Astrid reaches out of him, but he swats her hand away.

"No! I'm going to Stoick right now!"

Dropping Hiccup's arm and leaving his side, Astrid swings around the room to cut Snoutlout off at the exit. "You can't tell anyone about him." She says, laying on the intimidation in her stance.

For once, Snoutlout is having it. "You must really think I'm dumber than I look. I don't trust him, and I won't so long as I can go to Berk and see all the damage he's cost us."

"And there will be more damage, it will never end. Even if Hiccup gets caught, it won't end unless we put a stop to it."

He shakes his head. "Look at yourself, Astrid. Your life is all about killing dragons, ever since we were kids. You were always the best because you knew exactly who the enemy was."

"And I still do. But there is no enemy, not this time around. There doesn't have to be if we do this right. But I'll never be able to try if you turn me in."

He doesn't respond, just stares, stony-faced. Just stares and stares and stares.

"Snoutlout—"

"I know where you live." He finally says, loudly and obnoxious.

Astrid blinks. "Yes, I know—"

"And I know who your family is! I know all of them!"

"Well, yea, but—"

"And if I even _sense _that you're planning on doing something that could be a threat to me and _my _family, then there will be a price to pay! You'll put shame on your family for a thousand years! Which, by the way, is what's going to happen when this all blows up in your face. And then—" He points a threatening finger in her direction. "I want you gone! If you are planning on leaving with _him, _the sooner the better!" Then he dodges around her, walking off in the direction they came.

"You don't have to leave!" Astrid yells after him.

"Yes, I do!" And with that Snoutlout disappears down the tunnel.

.

.

.

If you had ever told Astrid that Vikings and dragons could be amicable (let alone friends), she would have laughed in your face or put an axe in your brain depending on how much she sensed you were losing your mind and should be put out of your misery.

Then she met Toothless for the first time. Then the second time. Then Stormfly. And now… two out of four of her best friends were playing fetch with the lighting-and-death-itself nightfury.

(These were strange times).

After Snoutlout had stormed off, the rest of the group had (hesitantly) followed Hiccup out of the tunnels. It all made sense now; the secret behind his crafty maneuvering around Berk. Of course she couldn't discredit pure sneakiness, but the farther they walked the more Astrid got a sense of how vast the tunnels actually are. And if Hiccup's mischievous expression was anything to go by, they probably dotted all around the island.

When they'd arrived in the cove (via another conveniently placed exit from the tunnels), Toothless and Stormfly, who'd been otherwise frolicking with each other, become tense.

But Hiccup had shrugged and (with a rather insincere smile) called them 'friends' and the dragons loosened up. He introduced them one by one, the soft touch on the head that made Toothless purr and Stormfly (lovingly) shriek. And now, well… they were here.

Hiccups stands on the sidelines, watching with his arms crossed and the corner of his mouth quirked upwards. Astrid couldn't help but think that maybe, for the first time, he was seeing the potential of the situation. That there wasn't only one way to live.

"So you guys actually ride them?" Ruffnut asks curiously as she carefully pats Stormfly's snout.

"We do." Astrid says, rubbing under the dragon's jaw appreciatively. "It's amazing, Ruff. You've never experienced anything like it. Stormfly is my friend, she's loyal and smart and everything an ally should be."

The other Viking looks up at her dragon with near-wonder in her expression, and it makes Astrid smile.

What seems like a whirlwind of only a few minutes turned into a couple of hours. "It's getting late; we should go back to the village." Fishlegs says, his eyes following the fading pink of the sky as the sun continues to set behind the treeline.

"Five more minutes!" Tuffnut whines.

"We're going to have trouble walking back in the dark." Fishlegs says, motioning to the darkening sky. "The only one of us who knew the forest that well was Snoutlout."

Nobody says anything, all thinking the same thing.

"Thank you, guys." Astrid eyes Hiccup. "For trusting us."

"We trust _you_, Astrid." Ruffnut says. "_Him _not so much, but the dragons are cool. I won't say anything so long as you tell us what you're going to do next."

Tuffnut nods in agreement, and Fishlegs adds in: "We want to help."

It seemed like a miraculous turn of events. She'd gone from keeping the biggest secret of her life to having three other people to share with and help her. If this could happen with them, then who's to say they all couldn't get along?

The image of Snoutlout's angry face pops up in her mind, a reminder that maybe it wasn't going to be that simple.

"Nothing yet." Astrid says. "When I have all the details together, you'll be first to know."

They seem satisfied with her answer, but don't move forward. They're waiting for her in order to go back.

"Oh, you guys go on ahead. Hiccup's been… staying in the village and we're going to have to sneak in separately to get back to my house. Probably through the tunnels, _now that I know they exist._"

Hiccup's fake cough barely covers his laughter.

Tuffnut looks shocked, instantly (and surprisingly) makes the connection. "Hiccup's been staying in your house?!"

Astrid feels her face go red against her will. "No! He was hurt, and just hiding out in my room until he gets better!"

Ruffnut puts hands on hips. "He looks plenty healthy to me."

"I'm not." Hiccup says blankly, speaking for the first time in a while. "The only reason you caught up to me in the first place is because I couldn't move as fast as I normally do. I would never have gotten seen, let alone cornered."

His response seems to make the other three grumpy as they glare at him. Why is Hiccup so opposed to making friends?

But they leave anyway—Ruffnut shooting her one last questioning look—and as the sun has almost completely dipped beneath the trees, Hiccup and Astrid are alone.

"Would it kill you to play nice?" Astrid asks him almost immediately. "You're in no position to be hostile."

Hiccup stands next to Toothless, lazily scratching his neck while not making eye contact with Astrid. "I'm not used to getting along with other people. Not now, not ever."

He has a bit of a point… but not enough to defend the fact that he wasn't even trying. Fishlegs and the others held his and Astrid's fate in their hands and he could barely be civil towards them.

"But wouldn't you say that it's great to see someone willing to _change_?"

He glances up at her briefly. "It would have been different if you hadn't stepped in." But that quirk in his mouth is back.

"You have a bad reputation. I have a good one. Together we have a mildly tolerable reputation. And Reeking Rorak's reputation is far worse than mildly tolerable, so that says something."

Both of the corners of his mouth turn up. "Sounds too political. And you wonder why I only like to spend time with dragons."

Astrid rolls her eyes but doesn't argue. Because for the first time in the many that they'd had this same conversation, he didn't fight back. "Say goodbye, it's time to go home."

With one final movement of his hand, Hiccup sinks to the floor. Taking his cue, Toothless drops down beside him. "I can't. My side hurts too much to walk anymore." Despite his words his expression is smug, probably since his side didn't hurt him at all and he knew she'd catch his bluff.

"If you miss Toothless, that's all you have to say. I understand that better than you lying about your stitches."

He looks up at her with a kind of admiration. "Alright, fine. I want to stay here with Toothless. You can't make me go back."

Much to Hiccup's surprise, Astrid sighs and walks over to sit down next to him. It's a situation reminiscent of the night they'd spent in the cove before Hiccup had gotten hurt. "I'm not stopping you."

"You're not?" He sounds almost surprised.

"I get it, Hiccup. Probably better than anyone else. We're like a team now; you don't have to act like I'm going to fight you on every little thing. We'll just stay here for the night. I miss Stormfly, too." She says. As if drawn by her name, Stormfly wanders over and settles down next to Toothless.

Hiccup grins. "You've become such a rebel."

She looks over at him wryly. "And it's all your fault."

.

.

.

Astrid wakes up the next morning to the feeling of a warm (and somewhat clammy) hand wrapped around her own. She looks down at the connection, a tiny bit shocked, and back up at Hiccup, who seems to still be asleep. Had he done this in the middle of the night?

Of course he did—there was no other explanation—but the thought dredged up feelings deep in Astrid's gut. He clearly didn't feel for her the way she felt for him, but somehow they always ended up in situations like this. And this wasn't her accidentally slumping on his shoulder, he had deliberately done this. And maybe it was just holding hands… but it was confusing and concerning.

What is he thinking?

As if sensing her gaze, Hiccup is startled awake. His eyes fly open, instantly meet hers, then fall down to their hands. He looks surprised, angry even, and he drops her hand like a hot rock.

He shoves his hands between his legs, turning his face away to not meet her eyes.

She doesn't mean to say it, but also doesn't regret it when it comes out. "What was that?" She asks him.

He continues to stare downwards, shyly not meeting her eyes. "What was what?"

"That, Hiccup, _that. _You holding my hand one second, then dropping it the next. It's weird—" (It frustrates me). "—and I don't even know what to make of it."

He shrugs. "Must have done it in my sleep."

She shouldn't be pushing him. "You didn't do it in your sleep the last time." She says matter-of-factly.

He gazes up at her, eyes dark but careful. She knows this expression. He's shutting down; he isn't going to talk to her. "It's nothing, Astrid. Really."

Astrid can feel her gut twist, a feeling as unpleasant as it sounded, especially as a different feeling was trying to desperately to claw its way back.

Hiccup puts his hands at his side, halfway through the motion to propel himself onto his feet. Before she can reconsider her actions, Astrid sticks out an arm and pushes his shoulder. He lands back on the ground with a thud. He looks over at her questioningly.

Astrid has done a lot of daring things in her life, that is without question. But most of those things involved multiple swords, a decapitation of some kind and a lot of deserved oohs and aahs from onlookers. And every single time she'd always had the utmost confidence in her actions… but this is an entirely different league of daring things.

Astrid moves, keeping her hand on his shoulder. She'd only meant to sit on him so that he wouldn't escape her questions; and innocent move enough on paper. She did it all the time, the _twins _did it all the time to each other. And it wasn't weird, it wasn't supposed to be.

But now she finds herself sitting in Hiccup's lap, and it's as weird as can be. Weirder, even. That feeling in her gut whimpers and makes a squeaking noise that could be distinguished as a cross of glee and terror.

Hiccup's expression transforms instantaneously, his eyes going as wide as dinner plates. From this close up, Astrid could see the dusting of freckles on his nose begin to blend with the blush skating across his face.

(A part of her is thrilled she can get such a reaction from him—but that part is drowned out by the overwhelming sense of trepidation).

"A-Astrid, what are you doing?" He can't seem to shake the stunned expression.

Astrid steels herself, exhaling slowly. She feels like if she opens her mouth her voice will come out just as nervous, and she won't allow it. She can handle pressure, she knows how. When she finally speaks, she's surprised as to just how calm she sounds. "I need to talk to you without you running away."

"I—" He glances to the side, like he very much wanted to run away. He's avoiding eye contact, and that gut feeling clenches again. "—Interesting tactics."

"You can't lose with the element of surprise." But there's no joking tone to her repartee like there usually would be, and Hiccup notices. He centres his face with hers, even as the closeness stains his face a darker shade of red.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Despite the colour he finally seems to gain a semblance of calm, that regular bravado leaking back into his voice.

Astrid cuts right to the chase, almost failing to notice Hiccup's hands lingering around her knees. "Why do you do stuff like this?" She asks softly.

"Do what?" He responds with equal calm.

She pushes his shoulder gently. "Don't be an idiot, Hiccup. You know exactly what I mean. You hold my hand, you touch me. A-and I may not have that many friends, but let me tell you that not Fishlegs or Snoutlout or Tuffnut ever do the things you do."

"Maybe they're just afraid of you." He defends smoothly, voice low.

"You're doing it right now." She says, nodding towards his creeping fingers. Noticing her direction, he almost instantly moves his hands and plants them once again more firmly in the grass at his sides.

Astrid doesn't know what she's trying to achieve, here. She isn't exactly even sure what she wants Hiccup to say. But she knows what she saw, and she knows she has to know from him.

"Sorry," He mumbles.

She shakes her head. "I'm not asking for an apology." She isn't sure she can make it any more obvious. "I just…" Maybe it's just fishing in an empty pond, after all.

She remembers that time she kissed him—it was only on the cheek, but it was still more than she'd ever done with a boy before. But that was when they were kids, and when she'd had the insurance of knowing that he already liked her. Watching him now, she felt nothing but uncertainty clench in her throat. She'd never been like this; Anything—or anyone, she supposed—she'd ever wanted, she pursued without hesitation and it worked out every time. But the thought of endangering her relationship with someone who may just be the most important person in her life via something as petty as (dare she say) _love _made her choke on anything she may have been thinking of saying. The conflicting feeling of two different wants is staggering.

Astrid Hofferson: Fearless (not really), strong (hardly), and apparently more indecisive than anyone ever thought.

He blinks at her, and something flashes in his eyes that she can't identify before it's gone. "Astrid, I don't know what to tell you. I'm sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable, I'll—"

Astrid punches his shoulder again, clumsily and weakly, and he goes quiet.

This is rejection, no matter how nicely Hiccup is trying to let her down. It stings just as badly as she thought it would, and despite best efforts she's sure it shows on her face.

_Nothing has changed, don't let it change. _

Astrid looks down between them, wanting the hurt to pass quickly but is still unable to look at his face. Their position is embarrassing and she isn't entirely sure how to move without making it even more awkward. But when she tries to stand, his hand comes to her side, stopping her.

"Wait a second," He says firmly, gazing at her strongly enough so that their eyes meet.

"Astrid!" Ruffnut's raspy voice loudly swoops down from above, and without giving it any more thought Astrid pushes Hiccup's hand away and topples off of him.

"Astrid!" Tuff's voice comes after, and Astrid scrambles to her feet. Toothless, who'd been lightly dozing a moment ago raises his head in curiosity and slight alarm.

Hiccup looks up at her, slightly perturbed, one hand still hovering in the air as if she were still sitting on top of him.

Astrid doesn't pay him any mind as the twins appear on the edge of the cove. They clamour over each other, pushing unnecessarily as they peer down. Tuff notices the trio and points in their direction. "There she is!" He yells.

"What are you guys doing here?" Astrid asks up at them.

"What are we doing here? What are _you _doing here?" Ruffnut yells, waving her arms in the air and nearly slapping her brother accidentally. "It's the final day of dragon training, everyone's at the arena waiting for you and no one knows where you are!"

Great. Hiccup wasn't supposed to know that. She glances over at him, but he seems to have regained his composure as he climbs to his feet.

"Relax." He sighs. "I appreciate you trying to hide it from me, but I already knew."

His listlessness surprised her, and only makes Astrid wonder if yesterday wasn't the first time he'd snuck out of the house. Knowing him, it probably wasn't.

"You should go." Hiccup continues, crossing his arms over his chest. "The last thing I need is for someone to organize a search party."

"Some people are thinking about organizing a search party!" Tuff yells down, clearly not hearing Hiccup, and Hiccup waves his arm in an '_of course' _gesture.

"Go," He urges, apparently aggravated by her lack of action as his jaw sets. (Or maybe she's just misinterpreting the signals again, since that seems like all she can do these days). "I'll be here when you're done."

His last words were a lot more reassuring to hear than Astrid had ever thought they would be. She has no idea how much she'd wanted to hear him say that until he did.

Nodding in his direction, Astrid tears out of the cove towards the twins. The last thing anyone needed was for the villagers of Berk to come poking around in the woods and find a couple of tamed dragons and a wanted dragon rider.

.

.

.

The next few hours are exhausting, to say the least. People flock Astrid with questions as she rambles off about something to do with patrolling the woods and losing track of time. From the corner of her eye, Astrid can see Stoick fold his arms and look at her with a sense of… consideration. (It wasn't the most comfortable of feelings).

Thankfully, Gustav's ego and whining doesn't allow the other Vikings to be distracted from the main event: the final day of dragon training. It was never supposed to be a spectacle, but the villagers treat it as somewhat of a holiday even though it isn't the final event. The sky that morning had been gray and angry, but the villagers pushed for the event to go on despite the threat of rain.

Gothi stands with Gobber on the outside of the arena, old as Hel but still as kicking as she was five years ago. With a nod of her stout little head, Astrid opens the doors to the gronckle's cage and lets it free into the arena.

The next forty-five minutes is filled with dramatic moves and unnecessary cartwheels from Gustav, Blaize's near death via gronckle blast and only one mental break down (everybody already knew that Torvald wasn't cut out for dragon fighting, anyway).

And at the end of the whole shebang, as the dust settles, Gothi raises a crooked finger (unsurprisingly) in the direction of Gustav Larsen. The crowds cheer, Gustav does another cartwheel, and like another boy she knew, Astrid watches as the rest of the trainee group (now graduates, she supposes) props not-so-little-anymore Gustav Larsen onto their shoulders and parade him around the arena.

By the time the hoards disperse it was only a few hours past noon, but Astrid feels thoroughly exhausted. Since she's arrived at the arena, all she's done is sit around, but she suspects her fatigue stems from the conversation of the morning. She feels wiped, and as she passes her front porch on the way back to the cove, she wishes for a second it wouldn't be a totally ludicrous thought to curl into a ball on her blanket for just a few minutes.

But she figures that Hiccup is waiting for her, so she scurries past and heads onward.

For only the thousandth time she wonders if they can still keep things the way they were. It makes Astrid's heart ache to think that her silly little crush would remain just that, but distancing herself out of awkwardness would be far worse a sentence. She continues to tell herself, repeating the mantra with each step, that things could continue to stay the same—even if it hurt her more and more with every repetition.

By the time she reaches the cove, the sky's completely clouded over and small droplets of rain are sprinkling down from the sky. Astrid glances upwards, scowls at the clouds, and continues on her way.

The drizzle is soft, so unlike Berk's usual rain, and it makes a rather nice sound as it plunks into the pond of the cove. The trees rustle happily as the water beads down their leaves, and judging by the calm of the cove, it's instantly obvious that Hiccup is not there. Toothless lies in the grass, parked like the faithful dragon he is with his nose nuzzled into his paws.

Stormfly barks and runs up to Astrid, lowering her head with the expectancy to get pet. She's gotten so big in the past few weeks, nearly to the size of an adult dragon. It wasn't so easy to climb aboard as it used to be, and boy, did Stormfly like to remind her every time they went out for a ride.

"Hey, girl." Astrid says as the rubs her hand up Stormfly's side. "Where's Hiccup?"

Stormfly does nothing but hum under Astrid's touch. At the sound of his friend's name, Toothless raises his head in her direction.

"Do you know where Hiccup is?" Astrid asks him.

Toothless' expression, ever animated, gives her a quizzical look before rolling his eyes and burying his head in the grass again. _Come on, Astrid, _his actions say, _you spend more time with him than I do these days. This is information you should know already, considering how you too seem to be attached at the hip and all that. Just make sure you bring him back safely, even after all this time you still suck at working my tail._

Okay, so maybe she was subsidizing Toothless' words a bit, but you get the idea. Toothless wouldn't have a way of knowing where Hiccup is.

Astrid frowns as she continues to pet her dragon. Hiccup said he'd be here, but he's nowhere to be seen. The only reason she doesn't entertain the sinking feeling in her stomach is because he'd never leave Toothless behind. He can't even leave the island without Toothless. He didn't leave—he promised her he wouldn't.

Hiccup may be reckless at times, but he had her trust and he knew what that meant.

So where did he go?

"Something's not right." Astrid says to Stormfly. And that's when the rain comes down like a sheet of ice.

.

.

.

Astrid starts listing off places in her head he could have gone. Her house, most likely, if he sensed the rain was coming. The arena if he was being stupid; maybe he was angry about the dragon training and he just didn't say. He could have gone straight to his father's house if we was feeling extra dumb and confrontational (As if yesterday wasn't enough).

Maybe one of the group had faced down their mistrust and smuggled Hiccup back into their house. But one of them, no doubt, would have pulled her aside and told her. She was responsible for him in their eyes, after all.

No… the more she thinks about it, the more unreliable Hiccup is starting to sound in her mind. How can she continue to trust him as much as she does when he keeps pulling stunts like this; disappearing without a word to follow his own agenda when she _stressed _the importance of transparency in their relationship.

Maybe it isn't his intention, but for the first time Astrid feels like she's just being played by the manipulative and heartless person she had first met all those weeks ago. Maybe Hiccup isn't as trustworthy as she preached again and again?

As he _was _her responsibility (Like a mother with her child, good gods) Astrid has every intention to venture around the village and look for him, then beat the crap out of him.

But by the time she's reached her house, only halfway to the arena on the fastest route through the village, the chilling rain has soaked right through her clothes to her skin. If she continues to run around like this she'd, without a doubt, get sick. And being off her game, if only for a few days, was not something she could afford at the moment.

Astrid ducks into her house, closing the door tightly behind her and frowning at the dying embers of the fire. Her parents were usually home at this time, but she was sure tonight they were going to be spending extra hours in the great hall for Gustav's celebration dinner.

Tossing some kindling wood onto the fire, Astrid marches up the stairs to get some dry clothes. Rain flies through the open window and hits her face, and she rushes over and pulls the shutters closed. Rainwater drips down the sill and onto the floor, but it was a manageable puddle that she could deal with later. With the threat of the house flooding neutralized, Astrid takes a breather second before beginning to peel off her wet clothes.

Astrid begins pulling off her armour, her cuffs, her boots and pretty much everything that had been penetrated by the rain as she calmly shuffles through her closet for something dry and somewhat presentable.

She pulls the band from her braid, setting the locks free. She squeezes the end to relieve the extra water.

Most of her usual (and one-of-a-kind) accessories are still strewn across the floor—her shoulder armour, her skirt, her hood—but a few minutes later the base layer of her outfit is fresh and dry (and slightly mismatched) but good enough.

Pulling on a new pair of boots, Astrid drops down on her bed, brush in hand, and start running it through her hair. Her hair isn't very long, and compared to Ruffnut's length it was downright laughable. Most women grew it out a lot longer, which gave them the ability to invent so many interesting buns—heck, men, too.

Her thoughts stray to Hiccup; because what else would be on her mind? He always had short hair, never followed his father's example, but after years of unkemptness it had gotten a bit longer. The messy, careless 'do looked good on him; made him all the more interesting. She wonders if he'd let her braid it, it looked just long enough—

No, Astrid. You're supposed to be mad at him. Stay angry; you're good at that.

Astrid continues to run the brush through her hair, focusing on letting her annoyance stew. Hiccup had taken off without a word, and it wasn't the first time, either. She'd pretty much let him get away with sneaking out of the house when she told him not to. All she wanted was for him to be level with her, it was what she asked of him every time. But now she'd be trapped in the house until the rain subsided while he was out doing gods-know-what.

The sudden noise of the shutters flying open makes Astrid jump to her feet. It wasn't unusual for the shutters to give under the wind of a storm, but this sounded like some seriously aggressive wind. Astrid spins around to face the window, but scowls when she sees the person climbing up onto the ledge. She begins glaring at him as he hops over the ledge and into the room.

He's absolutely soaked, clothes dripping on the floor and hair plastered to his face with water. His cheeks burn red with the cold of the rain. But he doesn't look bothered, giving Astrid a confused half-smile as she continues to glower at him. "So listen—" He starts, but Astrid cuts him off.

"Where did you go? What is so important that you can't just _tell me?"_

"Hey, calm down, something came up." He says composedly as he closes the shutters behind him.

"_Something came up?" _She begins pacing back and forth across the room to vent a little bit of her frustration. "You have zero responsibility and nothing to do, nothing should come up!"

"I'm sorry, Astrid. I had no intention of taking off, I swear. I promised I'd be there and I wish I could have honoured that. I know how upset it made you the last time and I should have controlled myself, okay? But it was an emergency and I didn't have a choice."

Astrid is momentarily stunned by his truthfulness and her pacing stops. She hadn't been expecting him to realize all that on his own, let alone confess it all to her as if he had read her mind. A few seconds later her brain reboots and commands her body to continue pacing. "Well, you should be sorry! I—I know I keep saying this, but I don't want you to hide things from me!" She continues, although the conviction isn't there anymore and judging by his smirk he can tell.

"I'm sorry about today." He says again, expression falling into seriousness.

Astrid continues pacing. "You apologized for that already, Hiccup. Saying it twice won't make me any less mad!"

He shakes his head, chuckling softly. "I'm not talking about that, although I am sorry about it, too."

_Then what, Hiccup, because I'm sure from amongst the village we can come up with a long list of things you should be sorry about! _

But she doesn't get the chance to speak her thoughts, because on the next turn of her pacing he's suddenly standing right in front of her.

_His silence and agility is exceptional _is all she can think as he grabs her arm, pulls her close and kisses her.


	18. They Go On an Adventure

**A/N: Hey guys, I have no excuses. Just read. Enjoy!**

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For the first half second, all Astrid can think about is that his lips are cold, probably from the chilling rain. So are his hands, sending cold tingles up her sides, shimmying down to the tips of her fingers, even though it feels like her insides are burning up. Flashes of heat are coursing through her from somewhere in her stomach, and no matter the icy feel of Hiccup's fingers, Astrid can't help, for one glorious second of obliviousness, being filled with warmth.

Then it all reality kicks in, and Astrid, with a slight jolt, realizes that _Hiccup is kissing her. _And he feels the way she thought he would, he smells the way she thought he would, he tastes the way she thought he would. Her insides sing and her blood pressure skyrockets and she wouldn't have believed that something like this could feel so right unless she was experiencing it for herself. It was absurd. It was so natural, it couldn't possibly be real.

Astrid had never been the type of girl to sit daintily on her windowsill and sing to all the living creatures of the world, but for a second she hears that girlish singing voice in her gut. It's pretty voice, soft, and even twenty minutes ago she wouldn't have believed this side of her existed unless she'd had a prince to coax it out of her. Or a Hiccup.

Then she shoves him away.

She doesn't even realize how much she needed to breathe until he was gone. Still, the oxygen seems bittersweet compared to the taste of his lips. "What is _wrong _with you?" She growls at him between huffs.

He doesn't let go of her, hands still firmly gripping her waist with no apparent intent to let go. "You've got to be more specific than that." He says smugly.

"Dear gods, Hiccup, this morning you wanted nothing to do with me! And now you come in here with a half dozen words and kiss me?!"

"I apologized, didn't I?"

"That's not what I mean!" Astrid groans. "Just—I—" she can't seem to find the right words, so she settles for: "What is wrong with you?!" As she lightly beats her fists against his chest. What was wrong with this boy?

He looks down at her, perfectly amused, and has barely opened his mouth to speak when the distinct sounds of fists on the front door calls his attention. It's a sound barely discernable from noise the rain makes against the building, but both Hiccup and Astrid hear it as their heads turn in the direction of the front.

"Ooh," Hiccup says enthusiastically. "My excuse finally figured out he didn't have the upper body strength to climb to your window."

"Excuse?" Astrid echoes, watching as Hiccup lets her go and starts jumping down the stairs. Without him there all she feels is cold, which makes absolutely no sense at all. Her body must be going haywire in sync with her emotions.

"What do you mean, excuse?" She asks him again, quieter this time, shaking her head as she follows him down the stairs. She doesn't really want to talk to the mysterious 'excuse'. Suddenly, whatever the Hel he was doing before doesn't so much bother her as what just happened in her room not but a minute ago.

But deciding to leave it be for now, Astrid walks over to the door and yanks it open as the person on the other side starts knocking again.

"Oh, Astrid." Snoutlout's eyes go wide, fist still raised in the air mid-knock. He's drenched from the rain, his hair clinging to his neck and the drops bouncing off his helmet. _Ping ping ping._ She notices the purplish bruise on his jaw as the muscles in his neck work.

"Hey, Snoutlout." Astrid says cautiously, not entirely sure how she was expected to react.

"Couldn't make the climb, eh, Snoutlout?" Hiccup swings around the open door to stand at Astrid's side.

Astrid looks back and forth between the two boys, pointing a finger at Snoutlout. "You're telling me you spent the morning gallivanting around with Snoutlout? Really? I'd love to hear you try and spin that one."

"Hey, can I come in? It's kind of raining out here!" Snoutlout barks, his temper momentarily flaring past his meek smile.

"Right, sorry." Astrid steps aside, allowing Snoutlout into the house. Hiccup shuts the door behind him.

Snoutlout pulls off his helmet, releasing the wet locks from their postured hold beneath his helmet. He runs a nervous hand through his hair. "I'm here to apologize. Sortof."

Hiccup snorts, folding his arms over his chest. "Nu-uh, start from the beginning. _Why _did you come to apologize?"

Astrid is still handing on the word 'apologize'. The last time they'd spoken, Snoutlout had basically blackmailed her. They made the kind of agreement that you'd make with someone you hoped to never see again (or possibly see a final time on the end of your weapon). It hurt, but she'd come to accept it—and now he was here to _apologize_? With Hiccup in the room? And alive? It doesn't exactly add up, and judging by the queasy look on Snoutlout's face, he knows it too.

Snoutlout glares at Hiccup, then turns back to Astrid. "I… kind of found out from Fishlegs where Hiccup's dragon was and went there during the trial this morning."

"You what? Why? You said you wouldn't interfere!" Astrid growls, eyes going wide.

"Well, I lied!" Snoutnout says sheepishly. "I—I thought maybe I could work behind your back. I wanted to try and kill Hiccup, or at least his dragon. I didn't trust him, and I wanted to protect the village!"

Although Snoutlout had just blatantly admitted to wanting to kill him and his dragon, Hiccup looks amused at his words. "And then what happened?" He asks playfully.

Snoutlout groans. "So I went…" He's very obviously squirming. "And Hiccup was there. And I confronted him, and then…" He frowns, clearly not wanting to continue. "I started it, okay? Hiccup told me he didn't want to fight because it would make you upset, but I didn't give him a choice."

Astrid looks over at Hiccup, certain the awe was showing in her expression. "Really?"

Hiccup nods, smiling. "I promised you, didn't I?"

"Anyway," Snoutlout interrupts the moment, rubbing his jaw in the obvious place Hiccup had hit him. "Hiccup got the better of me. And then when I couldn't move, he showed me…" The poor guy sounds like he was struggling the story, a humble retelling that was blatantly against his egotistic nature. And as angry as he had made her, Astrid didn't want him to suffer.

"It's okay, Snoutlout." Astrid says, lowering her arms. "I understand. But I understood where you were coming from, too. You don't have to apologize; it was a far-fetched story to begin with."

He shakes his head. "No, I do. I threw all of the trust we had out the window. And I was wrong, because Toothless and Stormfly… they're not monsters. And we're friends, Astrid, I don't want you to leave. I want us all to get along, us and the dragons."

It was weird to hear him say all of that, a complete one-eighty in perspective than just the day before. But Astrid remembers the time she was fifteen and she discovered Hiccup's nightfury in the woods—it only took an afternoon for her to change the mindset she'd been indoctrinated with since childhood. Hiccup had a way of showing people the truth, if only he'd use his ability rather than just destroy.

"Thank you. I'm glad we don't have to fight."

Her words seem to reassure him, because he genuinely smiles. But then she remembers something.

"But when I was in the cove, Toothless was there and the both of you weren't. Where did you go?"

Snoutlout's face falls and Hiccup snickers behind her back. Astrid spins around to look at him. "What did you do?"

"Nothing!" Hiccup defends quickly, raising his hands, but he looks mischievous.

"Astrid," Snoutlout grumbles. "This is Pain."

At first, she has no idea what he's talking about. The sentence doesn't even make sense, but then Snoutlout rotates just enough, and Astrid spots a purple terrible terror clamped down on the back of his leg.

"Why…?" Astrid begins, and Hiccup bursts out laughing.

"He took a liking to Snoutlout while we stopped off at Dragon Island." Hiccup says between chortles. "The little guy clamped on and wouldn't let go. We snuck into the blacksmith's and spent at least an hour trying to pry him off."

Astrid can't help but chortle at the thought. "With no success, I'm guessing."

"He's strong." Snoutlout says, shaking his leg and watching as the little dragon stayed clamped on tightly. "And he had the good taste to choose me and not Hiccup."

"For a snack," Hiccup snickers.

"Did either of you think maybe he _was_ hungry?" Astrid asks, and the two fall silent. She rolls her eyes, going over to the kitchen to grab something that might lure the little dragon away.

"So what are you going to do with him, Snoutlout?" She asks as she rummages through the pantry.

"I don't know." He sighs. "I'm scared my dad might see him and try to eat him or turn him into a cushion. I can't bring him home."

"You could always leave him in the cove with Stormfly and Toothless." Hiccup suggests.

"Yea, but… what if he runs away?"

"Aw!" Astrid says mockingly, grabbing a piece of dried fish between pinched fingers. "Are you worried he'll leave you?"

"No!" Snoutlout's face goes red. "I just mean, we carried him here all the way back from dragon island, he doesn't know the area! He needs someone to watch him!"

Kneeling down next to the dragon, Astrid holds out the piece of fish as the other two Vikings watch her curiously. All at once, Pain lets go of Snoutlout's leg and snaps at Astrid, nearly taking her hand off before she drops the fish into his mouth.

"That's a _fast _dragon." Astrid comments, straightening herself.

"Isn't he?" Snoutlout sounds kind of proud as he says it.

"Why don't you see if the twins have any room?" Hiccup suggests. "Although I don't really like the idea of a pen, they still have the one they used to keep Bjorn Boar in."

Astrid gives him a quizzical look. "How did you know Bjorn Boar died? That was months ago."

Hiccup shrugs. "Bjorn was a very social boar; he was tight with some of the regular dragons." His face is dead serious and Astrid can't tell if he's joking or not (are boars and dragons social with each other?). By the look on Snoutlout's face, he taking Hiccup's every word as divine law.

"Ouch!" Snoutlout yelps and jumps in the air as Pain leaps up and bites down on his leg again. He frowns at his leg, staring down the small dragon.

"I'm going to go to the twins' house before it starts getting dark." He says. He looks downtrodden for a moment.

"She's not going to be mad." Astrid says, and he looks up at her hopefully. "Everything's going to get better. We're going to change Berk." Her words feel definitive, and if the look in Hiccup's eyes is anything to go by, he silently agrees.

"Just let me know if I can help." Snoutlout says. He moves towards the door, but turns back with a look on his face like was wants to say something else but didn't know how. Astrid knows words don't come easily to him.

Astrid nods graciously. "It's okay. I know what you're thinking, I get it. The past is the past, now."

He nods, the corner of his mouth turning up at he pulls the door open and escapes into the rain outside. Astrid steps behind him and closes the door afterwards.

"Since when did you become so sensible?" Hiccup asks her. He leans a hand against the wooden wall beside her, grinning. "I was so sure that when he told you he'd gone after me you'd have lost all sense of civility." They're alone again, and suddenly Astrid feels a wave of nervousness never seen before flood her belly.

"Apparently since you started doing the things I tell you to do. I thought when I went to cove you'd gone off on your own again without telling me, not done the thing I'd wanted you to do from the start."

"I thought I might need to make it up to you." He says, tone devilish as he gets closer to her. She can sense what he's thinking, and not a single part of her has the will to stop him.

She can feel his breath on her face, and it makes her shake with excitement. "Snoutlout's not a bad guy. I knew the both of you would get along if you stopped being so stubborn."

"No more talking about Snoutlout." Hiccup says quietly, lips close enough just to ghost over the skin of her cheek. Light enough to make her cold again, the burning feeling sparking somewhere in her chest.

"What are we going to talk about, then?" Astrid whispers, entranced by the feeling of his mouth as it finds her jaw.

_Astrid, _the inner voice of reason squeaks in the back of her mind. _You need to put a stop to this. Hiccup's displaying some really concerning signs of instability, here. This morning he told you he didn't like you in that way. And now, every time the two of you are alone he wants to kiss you. Don't you think that's a little bizarre?_

Astrid curtly tells her conscience to shut the Hel up. She was busy.

One of Hiccup's hands snake around her waist. "I don't really want to talk at all, anymore." He mumbles against her skin.

If he wasn't holding her, Astrid is sure that her knees would have given out at that point. She knots a hand in his hair, tries to pull his face up, because as nice as his teasing is, it was just that: teasing. She could barely stand it, especially when there was something she wanted so badly just so close but slightly out of reach.

He senses her urgency but resists her tugging, raising his eyes to look at her. "Someone's in a hurry," He says slyly. He kisses her, just on the corner of her mouth. She can feel his wicked smile against her lips.

_Astrid, stop. Of course his doting is adorable, but you're purposefully letting him distract you. There's time for this later! Don't let him cheat you out of the explanation you deserve!_

Damn it all, her conscience is right. As someone else in her stomach growls with dissatisfaction, Astrid places a hand on Hiccup's chest and pushes him far enough to send the message.

He looks at her curiously, although she's certain he already knows what she's going to say. He still keeps at arm wrapped protectively around her.

"What changed your mind?" She whispers to him. "I don't want to be pitied."

"Astrid," He's never sounded so genuine before. "Nothing changed. I always…I always felt this way about you. I lied to you this morning. And every time before that. I just thought I could keep myself in check, but I didn't realize…" He looks pained. "I didn't realize I was hurting you, too."

"That's so stupid." She says, her voice watery.

He exhales a quiet laugh. "I know. But I didn't want the way I felt about you to get in the way of the reason I came here in the first place. I didn't want to distract myself, and I didn't want to distract you from what you had to do." She shakes his head, a smile playing on his face. "But none if it is worth it if both of us are going to be so unhappy. I'm tired of being so _angry _all the time—"

Astrid had heard enough. With little warning she all but jumps on him, wrapping her arms around his neck and catching his lips with hers.

Hiccup's kisses are suddenly frantic, as if he's afraid she would be gone in the next instant. Whatever the reason, Astrid is too enamoured to care and she holds him tightly in return. It's the kind of kiss that's trying to make up for lost time, for past weeks or even years if things had been different. It's the kind of kiss that both of them had been waiting for for a long, long time.

It's the kind of kiss so distracting you might miss the sound of your parents arriving home from Gustav's celebration dinner and allow them to walk in on their only daughter making out with Berk's biggest enemy.

Luckily, neither Astrid nor Hiccup are strangers to the hiding game, and by the rain-drowned sound of boots on the porch, Astrid pushes him away and the pair scamper up the stairs before the front door opens.

The sound of heavy boots indicates her mom is first through the door. "Astrid? Are you here?" She yells into the house.

"Upstairs, mom!" Astrid ducks around so her parents could see her from the top of the stairs. "How was dinner?" She asks, trying to be nonchalant even as she feels her face burning.

Her dad rolls his eyes not noticing. "How else could it have gone? The Thorstons started a knife fight and the yak we were supposed to have for the main course got loose and trampled a few people."

Astrid smiles and groans. "Sounds like nothing out of the ordinary."

"Where were you, anyway?" Her mom continues as she pulls off her helmet, starts wringing out her hair. "We thought you were going to be there."

"I got caught up in the rain," Astrid says, motioning towards her semi-assembled outfit. "I don't think I would have been able to go back out after I dried off."

"Well, I can't blame you. It's nearly hail season again, I guess we should start tying down the house again—"

Astrid can't help but tune out her mother as motion from inside her room catches her eye. Hiccup stands to the side, unabashedly pulling off the parts of his armour, and suddenly Astrid can't fathom words as she feels an intense amount of heat rush to her face.

"—Astrid, are you listening to me?"

"Hm?" Hiccup notices her incoherent response and looks up at her quizzically. A playful lopsided smile stretches across his face.

While we're all together, your father and I need to talk with you."

Astrid forces herself to glance away. "Maybe another time? I'm tired after today."

"Oh, uh, sure." Her mom's barely stutters out her response before Astrid recedes back into the depths of her room.

Astrid's not sure if she should look back at him.

"You don't have to be embarrassed." Hiccup says. "I _know _I'm alluring."

Astrid scoffs. "You can't strip down in my room!"

"I wasn't!" He pauses, curling his lip in thought. "I wasn't going to, _completely." _

"Hiccup!" Astrid says almost too loudly, and she freezes, thinking her parents might have heard her. When they don't call from the first floor, she continues to glare at him.

"Hey, I'm all wet! Are you really going to make me suffer?"

Astrid opens her mouth to argue, but knows she's being slightly unreasonable… even if it did make her slightly uncomfortable. "Fine." She points a finger at him, leveling her glare. "Shirt only."

"You're so kind." Hiccup says sarcastically. He grabs the hem of his shirt and tugs it over his head. (Astrid isn't sure if she should watch.) But before she can really get a good look, as Hiccup flips the fabric something that must have been tucked in a secret pocket goes flying off of him.

It's round, small, the light glinting off the metal as it sails across the room and hits the ground, bouncing along the uneven floor. Hiccup immediately notices his mistake, dropping his shirt and taking off as the little disk hits the ground. He chases after it, and it's almost comical to watch as he runs, swipes and misses the disk all before it rolls to a stop at Astrid's feet.

She looks down at the disk, then back at Hiccup. It's definitely metal, coin-shaped with intricate and exotic-looking designs on the metal and a centre inlay of glass. She'd never seen anything like it. "What is that?" She asks.

.

.

.

When she was seven years old, Astrid had left Berk for the first time in her life. Mind you, it was only a fishing boat and only for an afternoon, but the prospect of being what seemed like an unreachable distance from home fascinated her. She remembers leaning over the side of the boat, facing the island, and wondering how far away she would have to go in order for the island to shrink into nothing. She'd never really liked the idea of leaving Berk, but she couldn't deny the bubbling curiosity she felt.

The trip hadn't been just for her, it was really supposed to give the kids an idea of what they wanted to do with their lives. Behind her, Fishlegs squeaked about the 'impressive symmetry of the garboard' while Snoutlout, as per usual, pushed Hiccup around while still finding it in him to mouth everybody off.

Hiccup was small then, he'd always been but in her memories he seemed even smaller. Ever since they had gotten on that boat he'd looked kind of like he was about to start crying, giving Snoutlout and the twins all the more reason to pick on him. Astrid wondered why he couldn't just learn to control his emotions so he wouldn't get noticed on so much. Or maybe just some effort into growing so at least he wouldn't be _such _an easy target.

She remembers, quite clearly, as the boat began rocking on that sunny afternoon and Hiccup went pale. Snoutlout jeers and shoves at him for being such a baby. Hiccup throws up on his boots.

Snoutlout screams. Ruffnut, who'd been standing close enough to get some of the backsplash, screams as well and tries to wipe herself off on her brother. Hiccup continues to look queasy, the sight of his own vomit clearly not helping. Mulch comes thumping over to see what the commotion was all about. Astrid watches from the railing, not sure if she should feel amused or disgusted, and sidesteps quickly as Hiccup makes for the side of the boat to throw up again.

The memory flashes through Astrid's mind, clear as day, as she slinks along the passages under the deck of the ship. It was really her only boat-related memory, so it would make sense she'd remember it, but… now she was beginning to wonder if Hiccup had other reasons for wanting her to go alone.

The corner of her mouth turns up at the thought, slightly amused at the idea of 'the dragon master' getting seasick.

Needless to say, Stoick looked unsurprised but still disappointed as his son had stepped off (or should she say, crawled off) the boat on shaking legs and with puke speckling the front of his shirt. That was the first and last time Hiccup had ever been allowed on a boat by his father.

Although this boat is anchored in shallow waters, the weather has persisted in its roughness and the choppy waters rock the boat back and forth underneath Astrid's feet. Although the rain of the day before had slowly puttered out, the gloomy clouds refused to show the true colour of the sky, or stop the winds from beating against the side of the ship. It was only early morning, and Astrid knew it was going to be another horrible day.

There's a creaking sound from behind her, a louder noise than just the regular groaning of the ship. She glances over her shoulder but only sees more inky blackness. If there was someone else lurking around in the dark underbelly of the ship she couldn't tell in the darkness before sunrise. The crew had pitched the ship and rowed to a port at shore, only a couple deck hands left guarding the ship above her. It was quiet and still, technically, night time.

It's hard to see in the dark, but her eyes have slowly adjusted. The passages of the ship seem like they'd be just as spooky in the daylight as they were now, the walls decorated with scaly dragon hides, teeth, large dragon sculls, maps and diagrams of nadders, scauldrons, skrills.

The more she saw, the more Astrid noticed how completely tasteless all hunter ships seemed to be in the décor department. Imagine having a house themed like your job. (Then again, she supposed her life was themed like her job).

There's another sound behind her, scuffling, probably mice. But despite sound reason she picks up her pace. The captain's quarters should be near the end of the hall, the back of the ship.

Usually, it was Hiccup's unapologetic policy to burn anything and everyone associated with dragon hunters to a crispy pile of ashes. Her and Hiccup's ideas of what was acceptable to destroy may have been very different, but they never disagreed when it came to hunters. Ever since his mother had died, Hiccup had made it his life's work to drive any human away, and Berk was just a small part of that. The hunters were a bigger threat, more dangerous, more capable and coordinated than the village had ever been. For years he'd been dismantling (read: destroying) their network.

But this ship was different, they weren't going to sink it. They weren't even going to touch it, an idea that annoyed Astrid just slightly. Besides the hopeful stragglers in the business, there was really only one organization left after Hiccup had taken down Drago. But this new group was more careful, faster, and knew exactly where to go to find what they were looking for. They were scarily efficient—which was exactly why Hiccup wanted to snoop around on one of the fleet.

"_I'm not sure what it is._" He'd said to her as they poured over a worn map with frayed corners. Astrid had rescued the papers from a dusty corner of the great hall, but the islands Hiccup had in mind weren't even on the map. No citizen of Berk had ever been that far away from the island (and survived to bring the records back). Hiccup had drawn surprisingly detailed extensions of the map on scrap paper, and he ran a hand along an imaginary route between the islands as he spoke. "_But somehow it allows them to always know where they're going; to always be an extra step ahead of me_."

Rain continued to shake the shudders and whistle through the cracks in the wood. Hiccup looked too focused to notice the howling of the wind outside.

His finger eventually reaches the metal coin-thingy sitting on the middle of the map. "_This is part of the key; I know it is. I just can't figure out how._"

"_Do you even know what you're looking for?_" Astrid asked him skeptically.

He gave her a serious look, a sparkle of excitement in his eyes. "_Not really. But that's why it's an adventure… and a challenge_."

"…An Adventure and a challenge." Astrid mutters to herself as she continues to creep down the hallway of the dark ship. She should be annoyed with Hiccup for dragging her into his escapades… but a large part of her is excited, and an ever larger part is pleased that he hadn't hesitated to include her in his convoluted plans.

The large door at the end of the hall is most definitely the captain's quarters, the door half open and a faint light spilling out. When she gets close enough, Astrid peeks inside, hoping whoever had last been inside hadn't bothered to put the light out. When she sees no one seated at the desk, she glances to the side, looking for any signs someone might be sitting around in the room. She notices the candle on the desk has melted into almost into nothing.

Pushing the door aside only a tiny bit, Astrid leans herself into the doorway. When she's satisfied there's no one inside, she steps into the dimly-lit room. Whoever was here had either forgot to put the light out, or would be back shortly. Betting on the latter, she knows she has to act fast.

Stepping inside, she finally notices the far wall. Enormous maps of all kinds decorate the wood, largely featuring pictures of places and dragons Astrid had never seen before. These maps beat Hiccup's make-shift version by a mile, they beat Berk's by a landslide. And there were so many… was it at all possible that the world is this big?

This might just be what Hiccup was looking for. He said he was looking for something that fit that coin, but maps like these were just as good. Better, even. These hunters had been able to gather all this information, and that's how they were always setting the pace.

Astrid would have to pull these down, carefully. Grabbing the corner of the one closest, she's about to start yanking when the door to the office flies the rest of the way open.

A large man, bald, with ugly eyes and a ratty mustache. He glares at her menacingly as he steps into the room. "What do ya think you're doing?" Heavy accent, too.

The only exit now blocked, Astrid takes a step back to face him. "It probably wouldn't make you very happy to know." She says to him, not sure she should be being cheeky with a guy that looks like _that_.

"Not likely, little girl!" He growls at her, pulling a sword from his belt.

The weapon should intimidate her, but the motion at the man's waist catches Astrid's eye. Next to his sheath, a cylindrical object hangs from his belt. It looks almost like the hilt of Hiccup's retractable sword, but the metalwork is refined into the shape of a dragon's head. Was it possible that Hiccup's coin could fit in there…?

Astrid pulls her small knife from her belt, but she doesn't intend to use it much. Now how was she going to get that… thingy without getting her head cleaved right off?

The man lunges at her, and Astrid dances out of the way. He stabs again and Astrid moves, her slightness giving her an advantage in the close quarters of the office. When he goes for a third stab, Astrid leaps away from the blade and jumps up on top of the desk.

He spins to face her, and in his moment of reorientation Astrid tosses her knife in the air with just enough force as not to stick it in the ceiling. The man balks (as one should when there's a flying knife in the air), and in that second Astrid uses her height with the desk to grab his shoulder and leapfrog over his side, kicking the… thingy out of his belt as she went.

He's fast and tries to grab her arm, the thingy goes skidding across the floor. Astrid stumbles as she hits the floor but doesn't stop moving as she scoops up the thingy and begins sprinting down the hallway.

It's still dark as she retreats farther and farther from the light of the office, and her eyes have to adjust again, but running straight is a sure bet—especially as she hears the sound of heavy boots on the wood not far behind her.

Astrid notices the stairs up ahead, skids in a turn and flies up the steps with the speed of a deadly nadder. She shoulders the deck doors open—and nearly collides with a very angry looking deckhand. He jeers at her, weapon in hard as the rest of them start to crowd in around her.

Great. Just great. And she didn't even have her knife anymore.

"Look who the boss chased down," One of them chuckles.

Behind her, mustache man bursts from the deck hatch, the doors swinging wide violently. Astrid looks around, she's surrounded on all sides. Mustache man edges forward, scowling.

Wonderful.


	19. They Destroy a Boat

**A/N: Okay, I _do _have a few reason why I've been so absent. It goes something like this: (student loans + summer school) = working seven days a week writing fanfiction. The math doesn't lie, folks. Sorry :'(. Buuut now work is winding down, summer school is over, and I'm going to have this story done in two/three weeks, depending on how many chapters I've get left to do. (I was actually going to post this chapter last night but I forgot... aha). I will see you all next week! **

**Enjoy!**

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"Well, she has a pretty face, don't she?" The intensity of the moment is startled when one of the hunters turns to his buddy and nudges his shoulder.

"Sorry to break it to you, but I already have a boyfriend." Astrid says, but she's barely paying attention to her words. There's no way she can take on all these people, not even with her amount of skill or bravado. Her head whips back and forth as she tries to keep an eye on every direction. Her gaze lingers on Mustache Man with his angry jeer and intimidating weapon. Forget the crew, this man alone was one to watch.

"Then you'd better hope he likes you for your personality," Mustache Man says. "Since I don't plan on being too kind to your body."

"Whoa, boss, she has the dragon eye!" Another hunter finally notices the object in Astrid's hand as he points to it, astonishment in his voice as if he didn't think it were possible someone could have actually stolen it. Or began the process of stealing it.

Mustache Man ignores him, raising his weapon in Astrid's direction. "Get her, lads!"

He hasn't even finished his sentence when one of them jumps at her, sword raised. Astrid easily ducks under his clumsy swing, but then two others come after.

One gets in her face, jabbing at her with his spear raised over his head. The man's height gives him an advantage, but Astrid has the benefit of having a number of directions to duck. She dodges, feeling the swipe of the spear nearly brush her face. She's barely recovered, hasn't even had the chance to think about retaliating when she notices another deckhand running at her with a sword.

Gripping the… dragon eye tightly, she slams it down on the spear as is stabs the air next to her head. The end splinters, the stone head falling off. A splintered stick isn't any less deadly, but the end of the spear drops into her hand as a new weapon.

An arrow barely misses Astrid's head, impaling itself in spear-man's neck behind her. Spear man goes tumbling over the side of the ship with the momentum of the arrow, and in the next second Astrid raises her makeshift dagger to parry off the swing of the man with the sword. Astrid ducks just in time for another arrow to stick in the wood of the ship's side.

A third hunter approaches, and then a fourth, blocking all methods of exit with their long weapons.

Great, just great. What was Hiccup waiting for, an introduction?

Her silent curse is answered as a plasma blast erupts from the dark sky, blowing a hole in the deck at the feet of the third and fourth hunter. They goes flying, arms flailing, as chunks of wooden debris come zooming towards Astrid and the second.

Astrid hits the deck, and so do most of the other hunters to avoid the flying splinters. The second man doesn't, and is knocked to the deck with the force of the flying debris. In that same moment, something grabs Astrid's arm and jerks her upward. She's shocked for a second, but then recognises Stormfly's familiar claws around her arm.

As they lift off into the air, the sudden motion jolts the dragon eye from her hand and it goes tumbling back towards the deck of the ship, rolling for a second before slipping into the hole Toothless made in the deck.

"Dammit!" Astrid growls, allowing Stormfly to swing her upwards so Astrid could finish climbing onto the saddle. "We have to go back, Stormfly! I dropped it!"

From amongst the dark clouds, the outline of Hiccup and Toothless reveals itself. It's still difficult to spot Toothless in the dark, but from a good enough distance his eyes always give him away.

From below, the hunters continue to yell up at Astrid and throw weapons, although many more were tending to the fire that the plasma blast has started on the deck.

Stormfly glides out of the way of the flying weapons, trying to find a good in to dive back down the deck.

"What are you doing?!" Hiccup appears, yelling over the commotion below and the wind of the sky. "Let's go! Or did you want to go back for hugs?!"

"I found the dragon eye!"

"The what?"

"The thingy!"

"Astrid, what are you talking about?"

"It's exactly what you described! The right shape; the hunters were protecting it! I think I found it!"

"I knew it! So where is it?"

"…I dropped it!"

"Really? You choose this moment in your life to become clumsy?! You've never dropped anything in your entire life!"

"Don't worry, I'm going to go get it!"

"Wait, Astrid!"

But she wasn't listening anymore, because Stormfly had found an in and the pair are diving towards the deck of the ship again. She can hear Hiccup calling after her as they go, but Astrid already has her mind made up, and she doesn't try and slow Stormfly's downward glide.

The hunters have gained some semblance of common sense, because they've stopped throwing weapons and switched over to arrows. Stormfly steers clear of every shot, her size and young nimbleness an advantage, and from behind her Hiccup and Toothless return fire.

When they're close enough Astrid jumps from Stormfly's back and hits the deck. She rolls underneath the arms of a lumbering hunter and moves towards the hole in the deck. Half of the scorch on the floor has set fire, the wind pushing it all in the direction of the back of the ship and the doors to below deck. Astrid doesn't break pace, continuing her landing run as she leaps forward and disappears into the singed hole in the deck.

She hits the ground in an awkward crouch, but lands cleanly. The underside is surprisingly destroyed, debris covering the floor, the artifacts and skins that had decorated the walls are trashed, piling in the corners of the room. The wooden support beams that once supported the deck are collapsed to the left and right, creating an obstacle course of wood to go either which way.

But Astrid didn't need to go anywhere—she just needed to find the dragon eye. She gets down on hands and knees, levelling her eyes to the ground and searching for the cylindrical object along the floor. She's barely had time to do a quick sweep in one direction when a piece of smoky wood falls from the ceiling, followed by another. They're small chunks, but they foreshadow the rest of the boat catching fire… with her still trapped inside.

The fire begins to lick through the ceiling above her, and Astrid continues her frenzied search. It couldn't have fallen far away; it has to be here somewhere. With a yelp, she draws back as rickety support beam detaches itself from the wall and nearly chops her head off.

The boat lurches to the side suddenly, sending all the loose objects (Astrid included), reeling through the air and across the underside of the deck. Astrid hits a wall. Some random chunks of fallen wood hit Astrid. The wind is knocked out of her.

She doesn't realize she's closed her eyes until she finally opens them again. She notices pieces of polished wood, realizing it must be chunks of the desk she'd seen earlier. She was back in the captain's office. And the maps…

They're a little torn, but they look intact. The fire hasn't spread this far forward yet. With the prospect of finding the dragon eye more and more narrow at this point, maybe she could still collect the maps.

Forcing herself to her feet, Astrid ignores all soreness from her body and moves over to the maps. An arm catches her around the waist.

"What are you doing?" Hiccup asks her, alarm written all over his face.

"I can't find the dragon eye; we have to get these maps." She says, pulling his arm away.

"Astrid, the ship is going to sink, whether you're still on board on not!"

_Boom. _The boat rocks with the sound of an explosion and both Astrid and Hiccup stumble.

"We're not going to get a chance like this again, Hiccup!" Astrid argues. "Help me take these down!"

"The hunters are idiots, there will be lots of other opportunities." Hiccup says, watching as she begins to detach the paper from the wall. Astrid doesn't say anything, but when Hiccup doesn't either, she knows he's looking at the maps. He's seeing all the places he's never seen before, and she can already tell he's swayed.

He groans. "Fine!" And begins helping her to pull them down and roll them up.

Another explosion comes from up above. Below the deck, Astrid is nearly knocked off her feet.

"What is going on up there?" She asks as she rights herself.

"Toothless is stalling," Hiccup says, continuing with the maps. His eyes are alight as he looks at them, the excitement she'd sensed a second ago growing.

"Not so fast there, missy!" Mustache Man appears, knocking debris aside with the humongous body as he fights his way to them. With his appearance comes the smell of more smoke. The fire is getting bigger and spreading against the wind.

The raises his vision from his struggling to Astrid and Hiccup. "And who's your friend?"

Hiccup smiles, turning to look at Mustache Man over his shoulder. He stops curling a map mid-roll, and Astrid begins looking between them.

"Maybe you'll remember my dragon, who's ripping your crew to pieces right above us, Ryker."

Mustache Man, or Ryker as he is revealing, falters for a second in his struggling before he starts to laugh. "Aha, nice of you to finally show your cowardly face, dragon master. Where you've been lately, mommy ground you?"

Astrid begins to smell the smoke pouring in. She turns to Hiccup. This place was gonna be a smokehouse in a matter of minutes.

Hiccup is too busy staring down Ryker. "Who else is involved in this operation?"

"None of your business, I'm pretty sure." Ryker says, and in the next moment he bursts through the debris in his way as if they were paper. He lunges at Hiccup, weapon raised, but just as quickly Hiccup pulls his sword from his belt and hits Ryker's blade away.

The two start going at it. Hiccup is fast, strong, but so is Ryker. For every advantage one gets, the other is able to win back. Ryker stabs, Hiccup dodges. Hiccup stabs, Ryker hits him sword away with a violent metal _clang. _

_Clank. Clink. Clang. _They go on and on and on. Astrid doesn't know exactly how personal it is, and if maybe she's better off not getting involved.

But she's kind of astonished by their skill, so much so that she's forgotten she stopped pulling the maps down as she watches them. Astrid is almost disturbed by the idea that Hiccup may have been going easy on her all of those times they'd fought. The two warrior in front of her were on another level, another _planet. _How could something this intense possibly end (and at that, relatively well for her and Hiccup)?

Above her, smoke is filling the ceiling, the threatening clouds getting lower and lower as the room continued to fill with the haze. Soon they wouldn't be able to breathe. Eventually—

Another beam on the inside of the ship suddenly collapses inward, landing in the debris of the captain's quarters with a smoky puff of cinders. Hiccup and Ryker are momentarily distracted from their fight, leaping back to stare for a moment before continuing with as much vigour.

Flames lick up and down the beam, quickly spreading to the rest of the dry wood on the floor. Astrid barely gets out of the way as a large part of the back wall collapses with the beam, revealing the gently rising sun and the dark, hungry water sucking the burning boat into its gullet.

They were going down with the ship.

The boat rocks hard to the side, there's a final explosion from the deck before the entire ship tilts into a violent angle. Loose debris easily slide out of the giant hole in the wall and out into the water. There's smoke and fire everywhere, but it hardly matters as the boat continues to tilt, sending everything into the water.

_Fwip, fwip, fwip!_

The strong winds above the water rush in, catching behind the maps and ripping them off the wall. They go tumbling out over the ocean with the rest of everything else.

"No!" Astrid tries to jump for them, but they're too far gone and she ends up losing her balance. She tumbles down, sliding across the floor and towards the open hole into the water. As she's crossing the threshold she grabs onto the edge of the broken wall, hoisting herself up to lean against the still in-tact part of the wall.

Hiccup and Ryker are, impossibly, still fighting each other. Ryker is heavyset and sturdy, Hiccup is light and nimble; both are very able to stay standing on the ridiculously tilted ground. Neither looked like they'd have any problem with keeping at it forever.

If they weren't in such a dire situation, Astrid would roll her eyes. _Men. _

Just when things can't seem like any more of a disaster, Toothless falls through the ceiling. The dragon screeches, wings flapping uselessly as he hits the floor of the captain's quarters with enough force to put a very, very deep dent.

Hiccup and Ryker spring apart to avoid being crushed-but Ryker's backwards is upwards and Hiccup's back is downwards, and walking backwards down a hill never did much good for anyone. Hiccup stumbles on the ground, slipping away from the fight and sliding down floor to the wall on his knees.

Ryker looks victorious for a second, as if felling Hiccup were a real goal of his. Then he turns his attention to Toothless, and his expression is startling. If Ryker looked momentarily fearful of Hiccup, he was outright terrified of Toothless.

Toothless scrabbles against the wood, grabbers digging into the floor so he could stand on such a steep angle without a struggle. Lowering his head in Ryker's direction, Toothless bares his nubby teeth as a hair-raising growl builds in his throat.

Ryker reacts accordingly. Astrid's never seen the lips of a man Ryker's size quiver before today. Fear flashes in his dark eyes, but in the next second they harden. Snarling in return, Ryker raises his sword at Toothless, apparently ready to fight the beast, but clearly hesitant.

Smoke pours out of the open doorway of the captain's quarters like a chimney.

Astrid starts to feel water on her back as the boat finally begins to take in water and sink.

Toothless looks like he's about to turn Ryker into an appetizer.

Between all that, the rushing water and the howling wind, she can barely hear herself as she turns to Hiccup. "What are we going to do?!" She yells.

Before he can even respond, the ship groans loudly. The ships tilts again, steeper, and Ryker looks like he's about to topple over. As if a sudden leak had sprung, water begins to flood into the room. In the next few seconds, they'd be swimming.

"We've got to get to Toothless so we can get out of here!" Hiccup yells, and Astrid nods in agreement. Water is quickly pooling against their backs as the boat sinks; at least now they'd have something to push off of.

_Crash, smash, bang!_

"Do you hear that?!" Astrid yells, and as if it had heard her calling, the massive masthead of the boat, a scowling nightmare head, comes crashing through the wall of the office. Anything that had been lodged into that wall goes flying, the masthead knocking right into Ryker and propelling him towards the hole in the back of his ship.

"Oof!" The hunter yells as he tumbles down the floor, pushed by the intense weight of the masthead.

Astrid realizes a second too late that they were next.

Hiccup reflexes are faster than hers. He wraps an arm around Astrid, pushing himself off the back wall and sliding across the floor. Behind them, the wall is smashed to pieces by the force of the masthead, and both it and Ryker roll right into the ocean.

Astrid and Hiccup slide across the floor for a moment before the ship lurches again, forcing them downward and towards the giant hole in the back of the ship. It was a phenomenon Astrid knew of—as water filled the hull of the sinking ship, it was sucked in at such a pace that the water around the boat created a whirlpool of sorts. If they fell into the water, they'd be sucked under no matter how hard they swam.

Before they can slide into the water, Toothless, still cleanly gripping the floor even on the crazy angle, reaches out a cramped wing and Hiccup grabs on tightly. It was a slippery, one-handed hold, and Toothless reels them in slowly so they don't fall. But it wasn't fast enough.

"I'm going to throw you to him!" Hiccup yells, nodding towards Toothless.

Stuff from the cabin continues to pour into the ocean like a waterfall—and that's when Astrid sees it. The dragon eye, glittering humbly, spinning across the floor. It would be in the water in a few moments, and gone forever.

There was no way Astrid would leave this hellish boat emptyhanded.

"Throw me over there!" Astrid yells back, using her free hand to point.

"But that's—"

The dragon eye is seconds from the water. "NOW!"

Hiccup complies, using his grip on her other hand to swing her down, towards the water but on such an angle that she's right on the line for the dragon eye. Astrid skids across the floor on her side, and just as the dragon eye is about to slip into the water, she snatches it up.

But now she's falling. She grabs at the wood with her free hand to no success as she slides down into the water that was filling the boat quickly. The room goes pitch black—the sun now blocked out completely as the ship sinks enough to fill the hole in the back of the boat. Astrid feels herself being sucked under by the strong pull of the undertow. The water is dark, so is the room, and there's nothing Astrid can do but struggle to swim with one arm.

There's a flash of purple light and a small explosion as sunlight comes streaming into the cabin once again. Astrid feels Toothless clumsily grab her arm and the back of her shirt, and she's lifted out of the water, gasping but keeping a firm grip on the dragon eye this time around.

Toothless' wingspan is restricted in the quickly flooding space, but he blows another hole in the side of ship as the three of them, Hiccup aboard Toothless, squeeze through the space and into the lightening sky.

Astrid is soaked and already shivering—but the fresh air feels wonderful on her skin, and so does the fact that they'd outsmarted the hunters.

Stormfly soars around to meet them, flying under Toothless so he could drop Astrid onto Stormfly's saddle. Astrid lands lightly into her spot, calmed by finally being reunited with her dragon.

She looks over her shoulder, back at the wreckage of the ship sinking into the water. It's about halfway disappeared into the dark waters by this point. There's a lifeboat in the water full of crew watching their ship go down from a dozen metres away, but if Ryker were aboard the little boat it's impossible to tell from this distance.

Astrid looks back at the dragon eye in her hand. They'd done it. They'd gotten this… thing that was somehow the key to unlocking another world.

"Did you get it?" Hiccup is yelling at her, and she only just notices.

Astrid lifts the metal tube in the air to show him. "Got it!"

.

.

.

Astrid smacks the dragon eye against her hand. After a second she lifts the lens to her eye, hoping something would appear on the other side of the scope. When nothing does, she huffs and grips the base with both hands, smacking the end on the stone floor.

"Easy!" Hiccup reaches across her, grabbing her arm. "You're going to break it!"

"Well talking at it didn't work, so do you have any better ideas?" Astrid asks sarcastically.

Hiccup grabs the dragon eye from her with careful fingers. Ever since they'd gotten back to safety, he treated it as if it might break at the lightest touch (Despite the fact that it had been throw around aboard the hunter ship and didn't even scratch). As if it were something so precious. If the dragon eye really was all that they thought it was, then Astrid supposes it was.

Hiccup forces himself to his feet. He begins pacing back and forth as he turns the dragon eye over and over in his hands, fingers searching the surface for a secret he couldn't see. His footsteps send heavy echoes bouncing around the caverns of his home in the mountain.

Astrid hadn't been back here since the day he'd kidnapped her (it felt like a lifetime ago), but the beauty of the mountain and the dragons didn't fail to impress her over and over again. Hiccup had shown her around, not just the gorgeous outside but his home on the inside, the room-like caves that he'd filled with belongings collected over the years, a makeshift bed, a system of tubes where the mountain water tricked down neatly into a bucket in the 'kitchen'. Most of it, he'd said, was put together by his mother all those years ago. He just kept the place up after she was gone.

The doorways were made wide enough for dragons to pass through easily. And from what he described, his mother's dragon, Cloudjumper, had been quite the behemoth before he had died. But everything, sadly enough, was made for only one human. Seating for one, food for one. It was a little bit sad.

The mountain was closer to the hunter port than Berk was, and it was Hiccup's idea to have a bit of a detour. Astrid suspected he might have had other motives. He knew exactly how much she liked the mountain.

They'd ended the tour in what Astrid supposed was a bedroom of sorts, with a bed and a platform big enough for Toothless to sleep on. Astrid sat on the corner of the platform watching Hiccup walk up and down the length of the room. She watches as he switches out the coins, or what they'd quickly discovered were lenses of sorts, and looks into the dragon eye.

He lowers it slowly from his face, making a sound of disdain. Nothing. Nada.

"Maybe there's something else to it. Maybe it's only a small part of bigger piece." Astrid suggests, although she doesn't feel sure. "I mean, how's it possible all those maps came from one little coin?"

"Lens." He sighs.

"Same difference."

Hiccup holds a hand over his mouth, eyebrows scrunched together in deep thought. He mumbles something from behind his hand as he continues to pace.

"Oh, yea, totally." Astrid agrees animatedly.

He stops pacing a looks at her, a small smile drawing across his face. "I said, maybe there's a key."

"But there aren't any _keyholes._"

"But maybe it's not just a regular key. Maybe it's something else." She watches him press his finger into a discoloured spot on the scope. The piece pops out with a click, and Hiccup almost jumps in excitement. He pulls the piece out, holding it out in the air to inspect.

"Looks like a tooth." Astrid said, eyeing the sharp edge.

"A snow wraith tooth." Hiccup says, turning it over in his fingers.

"A snow wraith?" She's never heard of the dragon before. But what else is new?

"They're very rare, live in cold areas, hibernate half of the year. My mom rescued one from pack of hunters years ago and it hung around for a few days. They're very reclusive, though." He glances up at her over the tooth. "Grumpy, too."

"Sounds like someone I know."

"Hey, don't talk about Toothless like that, he's right over there."

Toothless raises his head at the mention of his name, glancing back and forth between the two of them. Astrid cracks a smile despite herself. And his terrible joke.

"So you've got the dragon eye," Astrid says, holding out a hand and counting on her fingers. "You've got your coins—"

"Lenses," Hiccup corrects quickly.

"—and you've got your key." She pauses, thinking as she holds her middle finger. "Maybe it needs to be activated?"

"Activated?"

"Like… maybe there's a button or something, to turn it on."

"Turn it on?"

"Work with me!"

"Okay, fine." Hiccup shakes his head. "But there's no 'on' switch anywhere here." Sighing heavily, he drops himself next to her on the stone step. He holds the dragon eye out to her, daring her to try to figure it out.

"Complicated doohickeys are your area of expertise, not mine." Astrid says, but she still takes it from him. "Or did you just forget my greatest idea was to hit it against the ground?"

"Good point." Hiccup says, plucking the dragon eye from her hand. "So then what do we do with it?"

"Keep smacking it against a variety of surfaces until it turns on, I suppose." Astrid says nonchalantly. "Thank you for saving me from those hunters, by the way."

"You're very welcome, m'lady."

"I was being sarcastic. You barely did anything."

"Oh, you wound me."

"Just be grateful I don't wound you more."

Hiccup puts a careful arm around her shoulder, and Astrid is inclined to lean into him. After a brief moment of silence, he speaks up. "We could solve the mystery together."

Astrid snorts. "I'm pretty sure we were doing that already."

"No, I mean…" He pulls her in so they could face each other. "When we figure this thing out, we have to find out what's on it. You said there were all of these maps, but now they're destroyed. Just imagine all of the places there's yet to go, to discover. The hunters only had one lens, they've barely scratched the surface. It would be an adventure."

"Sounds like a full time job." Astrid observes.

"Yea, it would be." Hiccup agrees. "But we could do it together. See the world _together_."

His emphasis on the word 'together' scares her a tiny bit, and she feels herself stiffen. But at the same time, her heart leaps at the thought. No more dragon training, no more fighting, no more… Berk.

"That's not the plan, you know." Astrid says. "We've been over this. My friends are waiting for me, and I know the island is waiting for me, too. I can't abandon my home."

"But I can't stay there, Astrid." He says, and she knows he's right. "They'd never have me, never. And I don't want to lose you, not since I spent so much time finding you." He presses a light kiss to her cheek. Astrid tries not to blush. "I can't stay, you won't go, and there's an adventure just _waiting _for us. Custom made, even."

They'd had this discussion before, a thousand time, a million times. Hiccup didn't want to leave Astrid. Astrid didn't want to lose Hiccup. Hiccup didn't want to make it work with his father. Astrid didn't want to abandon her friends and Berk. And around and around and around and around they went. There was no solution. A solution didn't exist. And no one was willing to compromise.

"I guess I'm just going to have to steal you." Hiccup sighs. "I don't care about your happiness, I'm a villain, after all." She thought he was joking, but a moment later Hiccup's got his other arm around her and he's scooped her up in one fluid motion.

Astrid's hands instinctively go around his neck. "Where are you going to steal me to, your secret lair? Oh, wait, we're already here." The dragon eye slips from between them and clatters to the ground, forgotten.

"Hm," He smiles thoughtfully. "I suppose you're right." He turns to his dragon. "Toothless, do we have any other secret lairs around?"

Toothless isn't listening, his attention caught by the clinking of the dragon eye as it rolls across the stone floors. The dragon scurries after it, nose pressed to the ground as he watches it roll away.

"I guess not. I'll just have to take you far, far away."

"That's fine, but I hope you know I'm not going without a fight."

"Oh, really?"

"Uh-huh. Some would even say I'm scrappy."

He grins at that. "I suppose I'll just have to find you a good distraction then." He says, and a second later he's pressed his lips to hers. The heat from their first kiss comes flooding back, even though the first kiss was eons ago. Every kiss makes her giddy, and the feeling of his thumb stroking her thigh doesn't make the heat any less enticing.

_Fwoom._

The sound of Toothless' plasma blast draws attention instantly to that direction. Hiccup looks panicked, as if the sound of a plasma blast meant that the hunters were back. But Toothless doesn't look at all threatened or concerned. The dragon sits back on his haunches, looking over at them curiously with wide eyes.

"Toothless…?" Hiccup questions, but then his eyes are drawn to the dragon eye on the ground and the faint purple light streaming out the end. "What did you do?"

Toothless just hums at them, giving them a gummy smile.

Hiccup puts Astrid down without looking away from the dragon eye. Astrid can't seem to take her eyes off of it, either. Once she's planted on the ground he strides over, scooping it up in one swooping motion. The light coming from the end is incredibly bright, as if there were a tiny, intense purple candle inside. Hiccup angles the dragon eye upwards.

Astrid gasps. Maps made of delicate purple light appear all over the wall. Maps of places she'd never seen before; the maps she'd seen on the walls of the hunter ship.

"What did you do?" Hiccup asks his dragon, awed. He looks back down at the dragon eye in his hands, inspecting it. "Dragon fire." He whispers to himself. He turns to Astrid. "You need dragon fire to turn it on!"

But Astrid wasn't listening so much. She's watching that purple light, those maps, and watching as an entirely different life flashes in her mind. Hiccup would always be with her. Stormfly would always be with her. And the things they would do… the exciting hunter battle just a few hours ago seems like chump change in comparison.

"Astrid?" Hiccup looks at her questioningly, noting her very obvious blank look.

Astrid watches her very certain future, the one she knew she wanted, being replaced by the future of all unknowns. Being replaced by a future she felt a duty to fulfill as opposed to a need. Fighting for the dragons on Berk, maybe being successful but maybe being the exact opposite. The guilt, the anger. The stain it would leave on the Hoffersons. How much she wished not to care about any stupid stain.

When would she be allowed to do what she wanted? When could she toss loyalty to the dogs?

It hurt her a little to say the words, but she doesn't regret it. Not even a little bit. "Let's go." She says quietly.

Hiccup does a double take. "Go? You mean…"

"Let's go on our Adventure." Astrid says more confidently. "Let's just go."

A wide smile spreads across Hiccup's face, one of genuine happiness. Before she can say anything else, Hiccup drops the dragon eye he'd been treating like a previous jewel. He dashes across the distance between them, grabs her between his arms and kisses her again.

Astrid is shocked for a second, mostly at the fact that he'd dropped the dragon eye like a hot rock, but very quickly melts into his arms. His lips are dominating, passionate, stronger than she'd ever felt them. He kissed her like she'd just given him the world's greatest gift.

He pulls away from her as quickly as he came. "Why?" He asks breathlessly.

Astrid shakes her head. "It doesn't matter. I've made up my mind."

His hands slide up her sides, cupping her arms. "No, it does matter. I don't want you to have any regrets. I don't want you to resent me forever if you realize tomorrow you made a mistake."

"I'm not making a mistake. For the first time, I'm going to put myself first. It's selfish and stupid and not at all like me, but… I don't know." She shrugs. "I feel like I just need to leave it all behind."

Hiccup nods, licking his lips. "If you're sure. Nothing will change, Astrid, no matter what you choose to do. I'll always care about you."

Astrid smiles at him, at his kindness and his passion. Saying what she says next is like releasing a breath she'd held in for so long. "I hope you didn't break the dragon eye when you dropped it. We're going to need it."


	20. Everything Goes Wrong

**Hey, everyone! I think maybe the last chapter ended on a weird point, because the story's definitely not over. There's no way I'm going to let Hiccup and Astrid get away that easily. But we are nearing the end, so there's maybe 2-3 chapters left including this one. And this time I mean it, it's almost over!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Hiccup starts kissing her in her room, and Astrid had been somewhat powerless to stop him. Partly because Hiccup was very strong. Mostly because she didn't have the willpower to push him a way. A tiny part because the thrill of kissing him while her parents were probably downstairs made it kind of exciting.

The thought of her parents rips a hole of guilt in her chest, and suddenly the fervor of her kisses are not as frenzied. She didn't want to leave her parents, really, but there were no other options. Once she had gotten all of her stuff, which was slow going with Hiccup as a distraction, she was going to leave them for good. Forever. They might never forgive her, hate her, even, or maybe even think that she'd been injured or lost somewhere. The thought of putting them through that makes her shift uncomfortably, but it was better that they didn't know. Running off with the dragon master might make a little more upset.

Someone else would have to do dragon training. Someone else would have to supervise Stoick's hissy fits as he searched for a dragon for Gustav to kill.

Astrid puts her hands on Hiccup's chest, forcibly pushing him away. "Okay, okay." She breathes. "I need to grab my stuff."

"What's the rush?" He laughs. "We have all the time in the world."

Astrid smiles, loving the sound of that. But the morning with their run-in with the hunters had slowly melted into an afternoon, then an evening. It was quickly getting dark, the perfect time for the pair of them to escape into the night.

"Because the sooner I'm ready, the sooner we go. Like you said, we have all the time in the world."

Hiccup looks like he wants to disagree with her, but he lets her go. Astrid gathers clothes, her favourite weapons. She looks at the mementos lined up on her desk, gifts from her friends and family over the years. She wasn't sure if she were deserving of taking them.

She stuffs them in her bag anyway. She was really doing this. She was really turning her values on its head, really leaving the island. For good. Forever.

It was not an unwelcomed terror.

"Astrid?" The sound of mother calling her name makes her face fall. "Are you up there?"

Both Astrid and Hiccup freeze. Astrid isn't sure if it would be appropriate to try and stuff Hiccup under her bed. She glances at him, and the look he gives her says that he definitely not would be okay with getting crammed into a small space.

"Yea, mom?" Astrid calls hesitantly.

"I didn't hear you come home!" Astrid hears her mother begin to climb the stairs, and she feels herself balk.

Astrid quickly walks over to the top of the stairs, blocking her mother's entry. Astrid sees her father skirting behind her. "You guys looked tired, I didn't want to bother you." Astrid lies smoothly. She'd really come in through the window.

"Oh, you wouldn't be bothering us. We were waiting for you." Astrid's mother says.

"We need to talk to you." Her father pipes in.

Astrid feels her stomach sink. She's not even sure exactly why. Maybe because up until this point, she was planning on never seeing her parents again.

"Um, okay?" Is all Astrid can think to say.

Her parents exchange a glance, as if they'd expected the moment to be a bit more glamorous. All Astrid can think about is the past few weeks—all the times her mother had something she wanted to 'talk to her about', all the times Astrid had found a way to get out of it. Her parents didn't usually keep secrets, there really wasn't anything to keep secret around the island. So the fact that there was something, _anything, _meant that there was something to be concerned about.

She could always make a quick exit now—she'd done it last night; it wouldn't be hard. But when she might never see them again… it was hard to want to turn them down. Still, she somehow knew what they had to tell her would probably not be good. No matter how excited they look.

"Well…" Her mother smiles almost giddily. "There's been talk around the village, and we just wanted to give you a bit of a warning. You've been so busy lately."

"And you always have your head in the clouds, dear." Her father says.

"Warning?" The word makes her throat feel tight. She doesn't even hear her father's joke. Warning for what?

"Stoick's getting older, as you know, and what with his son… _out of the picture,_ he's been looking for someone to take his place." Her mother says slowly.

Astrid blinks. She feels a sense of dread settle over her, although she isn't sure why. "The role of chief always goes to next a kin. So if Hiccup's out, then it must be Snoutlout." That was what everyone said when it came to talks of the aging chief. Snoutlout was the obvious choice, despite what an idiot he could be. He was rightfully next in line, that's how tradition worked.

"That's the thing, I think we all know that he wouldn't do a very good job. Stoick's been looking for alternatives, and word from Gobber is he wants _you_."

Astrid feels her stomach try and lurch up her throat. Her? _Her? _She couldn't… she wasn't… Did Stoick really feel like she was fit for the job? Despite the dark feeling in her gut, she also feels a swell of pride. Stoick, Stoick the Vast, logical Stoick thought she would make the best successor.

Her mother probably notices her dazed expression. "I know; I know it's a lot to take in. But I just didn't want you to be overwhelmed when the time came he told you."

"Mom, I…" Astrid suddenly, desperately wishes she hadn't let her mother speak at all. Wishes she hadn't even come back, just turned tail as soon as they figured out the dragon eye. Or she very much wished Hiccup wasn't still in her room, listening to her struggle for the right words.

This was the role that could change everything.

Her parents must recognise her blank stare, because her father smiles reassuringly. "Don't worry, you don't have to make a decision now. But Stoick is planning on making an announcement, we'd like you to be prepared."

Her mother reaches forward and squeezes her daughter's shoulder. "No pressure, but just think about it! A Hofferson, chief of Berk!"

"Urdi," Her father looks at her mother with playful disapproval. "Don't pressure the poor girl!"

"I know, I know!" She waves him off. "I'm just excited!" She looks back at Astrid. "But we're proud of you no matter what you choose. But… the role would suit you fabulously. You've always been the leader type."

"We'll leave you alone to think." Her father says, backing down the stairs and pulling her mother with him. She can't seem to take her eyes off her daughter, but gushes as she walks away.

"Just think about it! Our daughter, chief of Berk!"

Astrid very much wishes there were a door to shut right now. She's not sure if she can manage to turn around and face Hiccup. She glances over her shoulder, almost relieved to see him leaning against the far corner of the room, tucked between the bed and the desk. When he catches her gaze, her brightens.

He hadn't heard.

"What did they want?" He asks her.

Astrid suddenly wonders if she could lie to him. Her parents thought she had time to make a decision, but she had less than no time left. She was supposed to leave and never return minutes ago, but the anticipation and excitement has very quickly fizzled away. Her world of unknowns, the one that had scared her so much at Hiccup's mountain, didn't look so unknown anymore.

Astrid blinks slowly. "All of those times Stoick had been talking about his 'plans' for me…" It all makes sense now. The secret discussions she wasn't meant to overhear. The watchful eye from the chief, all the scrutiny she'd been under. He wasn't suspicious… he was analyzing her readiness.

She looks up at Hiccup. "He wants me to be the next chief."

Hiccup's face remains blank, but she can see his shoulder visibly stiffen. "But it shouldn't matter what he wants." He says too quickly.

"I know," She feels her voice faltering. "But I just… this is _huge._"

"You said you wanted to go." He says fatter-of-factly.

She nods. "I do." But she knows her voice doesn't sound assuring. "But it's a lot to consider. I just don't want to act rashly."

"You were fine with acting rashly before."

"It's different!" She knows she may be raising her voice too loud, and hopes her parents don't hear her.

"I can't believe you would even consider it." Hiccup huffs. "After everything you've seen them do, you want to _lead them_? Do you think you're going to get to keep Stormfly? Do you really think, even if you're in charge, they're going to let me stick around?"

"But I could really make a difference!"

Hiccup closes his eyes, taking in a deep, but soundless, breath. When he's done, he looks back at her. His eyes are unreadable. He slowly lowers himself to the surface of her bed. "Okay, fine. So what do you want to do?" He asks her slowly.

The question makes Astrid's mind go blank. What did she want to do? Was she willing to take the risk, was she willing to take back everything she'd said to Hiccup to give her ideas for Berk another shot?

He shakes his head at her silence. "You're too indecisive, Astrid."

She looks at him, questioning but still silent.

"You know who you are, something I've always struggled with." He continues. "But you have no idea _what _you want. You're allowing yourself to be too far pulled in every direction, and it's stopping you from being you. _What do you want to do?" _He says his last words with a lot of emphasis, and it sends Astrid's mind reeling.

What did she want?

A picture runs through her mind, that of her and Hiccup, chasing down a hunter ship aboard Stormfly and Toothless. He'd look over at her, smiling. She'd smile back, basking in his bright eyes, the warm sun, and the excitement of it all.

The choice seems almost obvious, but then her mind goes back to _that day_. The day Hiccup took off, betrayed the island, freed Toothless. The day he'd become a rogue, an enemy of the island. She imagined what her life would be like if things had gone differently. If Hiccup had done what he was capable of all along.

Astrid would wake up, Stormfly would sleep on the roof of her house. Hiccup would work in the blacksmith's, banging around all day and inventing all kinds of wild inventions that dazzled the village. They'd see each other all the time, in front of everyone, no fear of being seen.

And at the end of the day, they'd still chase down hunter ships. But this time they'd return home at the end of the day.

It wasn't hard to decide which story were better. But it's difficult to decide if the better one were even possible. But if she became chief… the war between the dragons and the Vikings could, essentially, be over.

"I need more time to think." Astrid finally says, but his less conviction than she's used to hearing from herself.

Hiccup shakes his head again. "You've had plenty of time to think. You've been thinking for weeks, and I've given you all the time you need. But every time you make a choice, every time you think you've decided on something, you change your mind. I want to wait for you, but I can't trust you're ever going to let yourself make a choice. And I've got things to do."

There's a lot of wisdom to his words, as much as Astrid would not like to admit it. She hadn't been able to decide anything, not for a long time. She kept compromising, over and over. She just wanted to see it all work, she just wanted to see this utopian place she knew was possible. But she wanted Hiccup to be there, too.

That day, so many years ago. "_People don't change._" She wished she could change it, so badly. Everything would be different, better, happier.

"I'll make my choice." Astrid says.

"When?" Hiccup asks her.

"Now." She takes a deep breath, uncertainty making her voice waiver. "I can make a real difference, if I were chief. I could change—"

"No you can't!" It's Hiccup's turn to yell, and it makes Astrid cringe. He sounded angrier than she'd ever heard him. "You can't change them, you just can't! Don't you think I would have wanted to? But you just can't! And I've said it before and I'll say it again: you're just like them! They killed my friends, they killed my mother, and you're not willing to give up anything, still."

Astrid glances back down the stairs, praying her parents can't hear Hiccup yelling. Every time they were together, he'd been so careful, composed, even. He wore his heart on his sleeve, but he never let his emotions get the better of him. He never made it seem like he wanted to get caught, but now he's all but itching.

"My father," He looks like he's kind of shaking. "My father would rather me have been eaten by a dragon, than own up to having me as a son. He wanted me dead before I left, and hoped I was dead after. And they'll turn your backs on your as quickly as they did me. And still... and still..." He's struggling for words. "I can't believe you're even considering it."

For an instant, Astrid feels guilty. Hiccup was right, in a lot of ways. But a second later her guilt flickers. Was it really wrong of her to want the best for everyone? Was it really wrong of her to see that Berk could be something more than it was? Was it so wrong to try?

"I can't give up now. Not with an opportunity like this."

Hiccup rubs a hand over his face. "I feel like we've been over this a million times, Astrid. Seriously, you need to make up your mind. I can't keep waiting around like this. I've been patient enough."

Part of her agrees with him. But a part of her is hurt that he doesn't think that, no matter what she chooses, she always wants to do the right thing. Hiccup would only look at things one way: his way.

She takes a deep breath in preparation for what she has to say. "I need you to have faith in me. I—I can't do this by myself, and I need you to be here. You have to know that I will always try and make the right decision." She sounds pleading, but his expression doesn't soften.

"I have faith in you, Astrid." His face is quickly darkening, as if he's already resigning himself. "But I also have faith that you can do this without me. Maybe I'm the one who's been holding you back from what you think is the right decision. Maybe if I weren't here, you would have done what you needed to do a long time ago. The only reason you haven't is because of me."

Astrid swallows. "Maybe, but I can't do this without you. You're the best friend I've ever had. I—" She doesn't want to say it, to tell him that she loves him. Mostly because they weren't that way, not yet. She didn't want to scare him even more. But she knows deep down that she cares for him more than she's ever cared for another person.

Hiccup's standing at the window now, the cool wind from the near-night throwing back bristling his hair. He leans on the frame, gazing outside at the village. He doesn't speak, doesn't say anything.

"I can't be all of those things for you, Astrid. It's not who I am."

"Yes, it is." Astrid feels heat behind her eyes, and can't help the strain in her voice. "You keep saying, over and over that you're not who you were, but you _are. _You're good, Hiccup."

"I'm not anymore." He says quietly, still not looking her way.

She watches the back of his head, wishing he would turn around. Wishing he would do something other that wait for her to say what she was sure he was thinking. The conversation had come to a logical conclusion, but Astrid is almost praying he will speak up against it. When he doesn't, she continues. "So is that it?" Astrid says to him, her confusion and anger and sadness swelling. "Are we done?"

Hiccup doesn't answer. He keeps looking out the window, hiding his face from her. She thinks for a second he might be averting his eyes so that she can't see how upset he is as well, but he turns to look in her direction and his gaze is solid and cold. "Maybe it's better this way. This was going to drive us apart, it was only a matter of time, anyway. You're too good to leave, and I'm too rotten to stay." He says bitterly.

He looks back out over the village. "I mean, a girl like you and a guy like me… we were never really meant to be together. It's all a fluke."

Astrid feels the bubble burst in her chest. Tears come, hot and fresh, leaking down her face faster than she can bat them away. She can't help herself, can't stop the pain. She calls out to him, ready to continue the argument but drowned out by her own muddled voice.

Before she can stop him, Hiccup is gone out the window and into the night.

Her room feels big now, too much for one person. It had been quite some time since she'd been apart from Hiccup, and the sudden loneliness is not forgotten.

What was she going to do?

.

.

.

Astrid spends a lonely night in her room. She can't sleep, and when exhaustion from the antics of the day before finally sets in and she drifts off, she feels no more refreshes in the morning. When she wakes up, still wearing the clothes from the previous day, her back is sore and, upon further inspection, marked from her tumble on the hunter ship.

But the marks don't feel like battle scars, and she doesn't feel proud of them. Looking at them just makes her feel sad.

When did Hiccup get this hold on her, how did she not notice? A few week ago she wanted to kill the guy—now she feels down without him around.

Is last night the last night she would kiss him? Feel his arms wrapped around her? See him smile? It all sounds disgusting in her head, but the thought of him around just makes her heart melt. She should be mad at him, she really should. But she didn't want to be mad at him, she just really wanted him _back. _

That day, Astrid went about her usual business. She went to the arena, met with the Viking who was 'protecting' the gronckle. She went by the blacksmith's shop, talked to gobber and got a run down of the new recruits she'd be training in the next month. She wanders all around the village, not too sure of what she should do and really unsure how she should feel.

She goes to the cove, Hiccup and Toothless no where in sight. Stormfly is folder up on the ground, preening the feather-like scales along her wings with her muzzle. When she sees her, the dragon leaps to her feet, squawking happily and nearly knocking Astrid over. It was a nice distraction to care for her dragon for a while.

As the day shifted to dusk, Astrid goes to go check up on Gustav, who was more excited than ever about his upcoming fight. She watched him prance around his house with a small sword, yelling things like "Die, dragon, die!" and mock-stabbing Blaze.

_"Raah,_ I'm dying!" Blaze yells, falling to his knees as Gustav 'killed' him again. _"Raah,_ Gustav, I'm no match for your might! _Raah, rah, ra...ah..." _He tumbles onto his back, tongue sticking out animatedly, foot twitching.

Astrid rolls her eyes. "Glad to know you're both—"

"_RAH!" _Blaze springs back to life, hands raised in mock claws. "I'm still alive!"

"Not for long, fiend!" Gustav yells, along with a warbled battle cry, and jumps on Blaze. The two start wresting playfully on the floor, and Astrid sees this as her opportunity to duck out. She isn't usually in the mood for Blaze and Gustav's antics, and today is no exception.

"Wait, Astrid!" Blaze yells after her as se tries to make her escape. "Where are you going?"

Astrid's already got a foot out the door, and she sighs, turning to look back at the boys. She didn't want to get caught in the dark. "Honestly, guys, I'm a little tired. I'm not in the mood for…" She motions to the entirety of Gustav and Blaze. "…all this."

Suddenly the boys look very serious, and Gustav turns to look on his either side as if someone might be trying to overhear their conversation. Her narrows his eyes in her direction. "Is it about your secret plans?"

"Secret plans?" Astrid deadpans, not in any mood to entertain them.

"Yeah you know, the—" Blaze raises a hand to cup around his mouth. "Secret plans to eliminate Hiccup. You and that fisherman. Is that why you're tired?"

Astrid feels her jaw set uncomfortably. She had forgotten all about that little lie; it was in the heat of the moment and it felt like a lifetime ago. Hiccup has been slumped over in her arms, bleeding out, and she'd said whatever she could to make the boys go away. But now, if she really was… Staying, she'd have to find out a way to neutralize this.

"Uh," Astrid rubs the corner of her eye, trying to look calm and disinterested. "Yea, something to do with that."

"Are you guys any closer to finishing him off?" Gustav asks excitedly, raising his sword in the air in a stabbing motion.

Astrid makes a sealing motion in front of her mouth. "Sorry, boys, can't say. But the two of you are doing an _excellent _job as spies. Keep up the good work, and we might have to give you a mission of your own one day."

"Sick!" Gustav and Blaze high five. Astrid eyes them and they settle down again.

"Just, um, remember to keep our little secret to yourselves." She says, and although the boys look mischievous they nod in agreement.

She walks out of there with her head spinning—she'd have to keep Gustav and Blaze quiet about this forever, especially if she were to ever become chief. Even if she made it, if this ever came out… it would be scandalous.

Astrid's foot wobbles, and she stop walking for a moment. She's suddenly very aware of the amount of pressure and responsibility that she was about to take on. Normally, she'd be thrilled—under pressure was usually her favourite kind of working condition. She thrived on large tasks and hard work. Being chief—she almost felt like it was a job she was destined to take on.

But now, it didn't feel right. These weren't the circumstances in which she wanted to become a leader. Not with big secrets she'd have to keep from Berk—her future citizens, no less—and with an angry, hurt and possibly spiteful dragon master lurking around. Not to mention, in a totally different way, not the dragon master but Hiccup. Her Hiccup, her friend, partner in crime… boyfriend. Or maybe not boyfriend, now. Maybe none of it now.

She just didn't feel like she could do it without him, now. She'd become a bit reliant on him. And if Hiccup had made anything clear, he wasn't reliant on anything. He'd do what he thought he had to do, and it worries Astrid a little bit.

What would he do if he thought him and Astrid were over? Despite her best efforts, Hiccup still believed that he had some kind of duty to fulfill, and if his methods of the past were any indication then there was… A really good chance everything would get totally wrecked anyway.

.

.

.

"Astrid, are you still sleeping?"

Astrid wakes up to her mother calling her followed by the sound of pounding feet against the stairs. She sits up in bed just in time for her mother to appear in the threshold of her room.

"Oh my gods," He mother doesn't look happy when she sees her daughter still tucked under the blankets. "Get up! Today's the day, you're going to be late!" Her mother yells before spinning around and marching down the stairs.

Today's… the day?

Astrid gets up, takes a look out the window. The sun is high in the sky, higher than it usually is when she gets up in the morning. She must have really crashed last night, considering she hasn't gotten much sleep over the past few days. She finally feels refreshed, like the new day ahead of her, but then remembers her mother's words.

"What's today?" Astrid yells the question, leaning out over the stairs.

Her parents are in the kitchen below, eating what she thinks is after-breakfast-pre-brunch-breakfast. They look at her, slightly incredulous that she'd ever have forgotten the importance of the day.

Astrid's heart sinks. Was today supposed to be the day Stoick would ask her to be chief? Was today the day that _everything _would change?

"Today's Gustav's fight." Her father finally says, quelling some of Astrid's fears but also raising some others. Gustav's fight? But they hadn't caught the nightfury, they only had the gronckle left. Stoick was waiting to catch Hiccup, why would he have changed his mind?

"But I thought we needed a new dragon?" Astrid asks her parents. She realizes that they aren't the right people to be asking, and ducks back into her room without waiting for them to answer. She needed to find Stoick, she needed to talk to him. She begins pulling on fresh clothes, bustling around the room to get ready.

Astrid glances back outside, and her heart sinks. Judging by the sun, it was almost noon. The fights always started at noon, it was tradition. She didn't have much time, now. Most of the village would probably be congregating at the arena now.

Grabbing her axe, Astrid scrambles down the stairs and out the door before her parents can gift her with any more bad news.

.

.

.

The stone pathways surrounding the arena are more jammed than usual. Fights always brought in a large crowd, but Astrid is sure she's never seen this many people in one place before. It was the largest crowd she'd ever see come out to a fight, and that was saying something.

It's impossible to pick Stoick out from the crowd. Astrid spins in the spot, trying to at least gain some sense of direction, but can barely find herself from amongst the waves of people. This was a big fight… bigger than anything she'd seen before.

Astrid already knows that the day was going to be a mess, no matter what happened. An event like this, it was undoubtedly going to attract Hiccup; she wonders if this were done on purpose. It seems like such an unsophisticated lure that she was sure that Hiccup would see right through it. But he was also agitated right now, if not outright angry. He may be done with Astrid, done being cautious and done trying to keep it all together. He might be in just the right place to fall for such a trick.

And Astrid is torn, so completely torn because she can't wait and watch Gustav kill the gronckle, and she can't exactly tell Hiccup that it's all a trap, and she can't exactly _not _fight Hiccup when he arrives, and she can't stop either him or Stoick because neither were willing to back down.

But he was still strong, still had his skills, Toothless, and his army of dragons. It just seems like a bad, bad, bad situation any way you slice it.

She already knows that in these next moments, her two worlds will come to a head.

Astrid glances nervously at the sky, watching it level to nearly perpendicular to the ground. She knows, as the island's Viking trainer, that she would need to take her place next to Stoick soon.

"Astrid! Astrid!" She hears a voice cutting through the crowd, and cranes her head to find the source. Snoutlout waves to her, jumping up and down as he dashed in her direction, still too short to see over the head of the average Viking. She waits a moment for him to catch up to her.

"Hey, Snoutlout." She says it with no malice, but he must hear the resignation in her voice because he looks at her with wide eyes. He doesn't speak for a moment.

"He's not coming, right?" Snoutlout asks, having come to the same conclusion Astrid did that morning. He sounds his usual self, but she's sure he already can tell the answer from the look on her face. His regular smug smile is gone, replaced with something a little more vulnerable. "I know this would piss him off, but he's not going to come, right?"

Astrid's head sags. "I don't know." The crowd around them is too rowdy for their conversation to be overheard, and as this point she's not sure there's a point in hiding it anyway. "We got into a fight two days ago. He disappeared, I think he's mad. Maybe mad enough to show up. Stoick's made enough of a spectacle about today for him to have heard about it."

"You got into a fight?" Snoutlout asks. "And he just took off?"

"I…" Astrid's not sure she wants to get into all the details of their argument. "Pretty much."

Snoutlout snorks a laugh. "So you're telling me the guy won't run from an axe but he'll high tail it when he gets into a fight with a _girl?" _He scoffs. "I thought you guys were close. That's ridiculous."

Astrid shakes her head. She spots Gobber, standing beside Stoick's empty chair, and points Snoutlout in that direction as they fight through the crowd. "I didn't say it wasn't. When… when we argued, something got into him. He's still touchy about some stuff, which I understand, but… I don't know, I thought we were past him storming out all the time."

Snoutlout heaves a sigh, and when Astrid glances over at him, he actually looks deep in thought. It's a foreign expression on him. "So… maybe you don't need him, then."

Astrid looks at him, alarmed. Maybe all that thinking broke his brain. "What?"

"I mean… you've got the skills, the know-how, the charisma. Everyone doesn't hate you, which is also a bonus. Maybe if he shows up, you can just… let them catch him."

"Snoutlout," Astrid hisses. "they'll _kill _him if he's caught."

Snoutlout looks up at her pleadingly, like he really doesn't want to offend her but he also really wants her to hear him out. She doesn't interrupt him. "I feel for the guy, Astrid, but maybe he's just a lost cause. He's a wildcard. And if you go down with him, then we're all really and truly screwed. And I—" He looks frantic at this point. "—I don't want to hurt any dragons. And if you're gone…" He sounds so vulnerable; Astrid doesn't even know what to say.

And she really doesn't know what to do. There are a thousand reasons tugging her in a thousand directions. A thousand voices telling her what to do. And amongst it all, Hiccup's elevated and angry voice: _What do you want to do? You're too indecisive, Astrid!_

The arena erupts into roars of cheering, and after a second of stupor Astrid glances over at the pit and sees why: Gustav has entered the ring, waving his hands up at his adoring fans. Or maybe just the hordes of people hoping for a fight. Either way, the metal door blocking the pit from the rest of the arena lowers itself with a metal clunk, dust flying in it's wake.

Gustav heads over to the wooden racks adorned with weapons, making a show of pondering over which weapon to grab. The other Vikings start yelling their suggestions at him, which weapon would be the best against a tough gronckle hide.

Astrid thinks back to that first day weeks ago, when she'd rescued Gustav from a fight with a gronckle because he had only been able to cut shallow wounds. She hoped he'd at least learned something from her tutelage… or near-death experience. She feels someone staring at her, and in the next moment spins around. Stoick's claimed his chair, and is watching her. He looks at her pointedly; she's not standing where she's supposed to be standing. Waving Snoutlout off, Astrid jogs over to stand at the side of the chief.

Astrid doesn't wait for him to greet her. "What's going on? Why did you change your mind about fighting the gronckle?"

Stoick sighs, as if he'd been expecting her to ask him. "I didn't want to admit it, but I was being silly. I can't hold up the traditions of the village, it's not right of me."

Although Astrid had walked up to him feeling hostile, she feels her defenses soften. Herself and Hiccup had all but vilified Stoick over the past few weeks—meanwhile, he was still a caring, thoughtful chief. Sure he'd made mistakes, and he was unwittingly making another at this very moment, but he had his people's best interests at heart throughout it all.

Astrid opens her mouth to respond, but at that very moment Gustav selects a heavy-looking sword form the weapons rack, and the crowd goes wild. Stoick touches his hand to his forehead, his thought attune with Astrid's: swords, especially the slashing kind that the Vikings used, were absolutely useless against a gronckle. Gustav was still not ready.

"This is still about Hiccup, isn't it?" Astrid asks, looking over at Stoick with her arms crossed. "We've never had a fight this big. You want him to come, don't you?"

Stoick doesn't respond at first, his lips pursed beneath his bushy beard. "Like I said, I have to put the village first."

"But if Hiccup's not going to show up, like he hasn't in weeks, why bother? Why not leave him alone?"

Stoick's angry gaze returns. "Because he's still a threat, because he's sent his dragons after us, to kill us. Everything I do if for the village's protection, _your_ protection. I need you to understand that."

Gobber stands by the levers, waiting for the signal to release the gronckle from it's cell. The crowd descends into a hum as it waits for the big release. Gustav looks up at Astrid, impatient. Astrid glances over at Stoick, not sure what to say. Not sure there was anything left for her to say.

The chief waits, chin in palm, watching the door of the gronckle cage intently.

The crowd's hum dies down into a quiet murmur.

Astrid begins to grow nervous. He's waiting for something, but she can't tell what. The chief was never one for a dramatic flair, he was a straightforward and uncomplicated guy. He didn't do suspense. And the sneaky feeling of nausea that had crippled her that morning comes creeping back.

Something was wrong. Stoick hadn't told her everything.

Gobber must not be in on the plan, because he whistles over to the chief, hand and hook still clutching the levers to open the cage. "Aye, Stoick, are we gonna get this show on the road?" He yells.

The chief nods, suddenly looking a bit disappointed. He heaves himself out of his chair, the motion catching the attention of the entire arena. Stoick has something to say.

But before he can even speak, the shrill sound of a nightfury blast rings through the air. Some people scream and cover their heads—a lot more look up, pulling whatever weapons on them free.

Stoick looks up, too, eyes wide in awe and something a little more malicious.

Astrid's hands fly to cover her mouth. They came. Oh, they were so stupid. How could he not have realized this was meant to be a trap?


	21. The Boy Gets Caught

_Fwoom. _Toothless' blast sears right through the bars of the metal cage, leaving a large scorch mark in the centre of the pit. Dust flies in the air, just like it did the last time five years ago, making the inside of the cage impossible to make out. Gustav, still stuck in the arena, dashes to the door as quickly as he can.

The events of five years ago play themselves out in front of Astrid's eyes, except this time the boy is riding the dragon as it swoops in through the hole it's made and into the arena.

This was the moment. This was the moment Astrid had to decide. But she's rooted in place, completely unsure what to do.

_Choose, Astrid, choose godsdammit. _

Stoick pulls a sword from the sheath on his hip, raising the blade in the air. "After him!" He yells, dashing for the hole in the cage and leaping inside. More dust flies into the air as a stream of men and women, all suspiciously heavily armed, make for the hole and dive inside with weapons raised.

Plasma fire shoots erratically in two directions, nearly singing some of the spectators. Toothless makes a screaming roar, followed by some yelling from the Vikings in the pit. Astrid can see a bright spark from amongst the clouds as Hiccup's fire sword springs to life in his hand.

The movement inside the arena freezes and the clouds of dust finally settle. Hiccup stands in the middle of the arena, sword raised, Toothless growling by his feet. A couple dozen other Vikings surround him, armed up with swords, axes, daggers, shields.

It's an ambush. Of course it was.

It was never about Gustav, who stands against the wall of the arena, frightened but trying very hard not to show it. Stoick had an obsession. It was careless of Astrid to think for a second that he'd put it to rest for even a day.

"RAAAAAA!" The Vikings surrounding Hiccup charge at the duo, weapons raised. Hiccup jumps into action.

Watching from the sidelines, the creeping feeling from the hunter ship returns as she watches. The idea that Hiccup might have been going easy on her all of those times they fought. And maybe that he'd even been, impossibly, going easy on Ryker.

Because now, Hiccup is a whirlwind the ring. With Toothless at his side, they are unstoppable. Hiccup is fast, agile, and incredibly skilled with a sword. No one can even get close, the biggest of Vikings doesn't even stand a chance. The other Vikings either fall or jump back, unsure how to attack as she witnesses his incredible technique.

Toothless curls around Hiccup, tail swishing violently, ready to blast anyone that comes close. Hiccup runs a hand over Toothless' head protectively, and she's sure he smirking beneath his mask.

With the mask Astrid can't see his eyes. Can't see what he's thinking. Can't see if he might be looking up at her, or maybe if he really was done with her.

(Maybe it was all just wishful thinking).

Stoick stands on the sidelines of the pit, not having attacked at all. All at once, the action strikes Astrid as incredibly odd. Stoick would never, _ever _back down from a fight, but he was with this one. It was impossible.

Maybe the chief had put more thought into this plan that Astrid had assumed he did. The ambush seemed like the usual, knuckle-brained slash n' stab; but maybe there was more to it. Maybe Stoick knew he'd never be able to take down Hiccup through fighting alone. But what else could he do?

The other Vikings stop attacking. Hiccup stops moving, Toothless stills. Surrounding them all, everything goes quiet. The Vikings in the crowd go deadly silent, watching the pit in awe.

"Open the gate," Hiccup commands, shattering the silence. When no one moves, he turns to point at the person nearest the lever outside the pit. "_Open the gate_."

The Viking standing near the lever trembles a little bit and looks over at Stoick with frightened eyes.

Silently the chief nods, giving the Viking permission to follow Hiccup's instructions.

It looked like Stoick was going to give up the gronckle to Hiccup. But it's all too easy, doesn't Hiccup realize?

As the Viking pulls the lever and the wooden block is lifted, Hiccup walks toward the massive door, Toothless at his heels. He watches the block raise, sword still raised as if ready to fend off any attacks, but he doesn't even make to check over his shoulder.

The bar clicks into place, suspended above the door.

Hiccup turns to face the outskirts of the arena. "There's something I want to show everyone," He says, voice distinct but still slightly muffled by the mask. "And this time, I want _no _interruptions." He says the last words pointedly, nose pointed in Stoick's direction as if to talk directly to his father.

Astrid's heart leaps in her throat. Was Hiccup… could it be that he had come here to show everyone? To finish what he had started all those years ago? Could it be that he'd made up his mind to be the person Astrid knew he was?

Was this really it?

Astrid's a moment away from jumping into the arena to join him, and to help him show everyone. She takes a step forward, the sound of her boot bouncing off the stone walkway the only sound to come from any other person.

Her next step is drowned out by the sound of the doors of the gronckle's cage bursting open. But instead of the dragon, a massive net comes flying from the dark and out into the opening.

They're standing too close to the door, Astrid realizes, and before Hiccup can react Toothless has thrown himself in the way of the net. The ropes hit the dragon hard, wrapping around him tightly and sending him rolling

"Toothless!" Hiccup yells, but it's barely masked by the sound of thundering boots as at least two dozen heavily-armed men come pouring out of the cage, a handful pushing a heavy, wheeled net launcher between them.

Hiccup staggers back, weapon raised to fight off the small brigade of men. Then he looks over his shoulder at his dragon, lying on the floor as the other Vikings jump on him, securing the ropes tighter, making Toothless scream in protest.

It's like that day, all over again.

Realizing his options have become very limited, Hiccup raises his hands in the air, his sword dropping from his fingers and landing on the ground with a cool metal clank. His shoulder slump in defeat.

In the next instant, the warriors from the gronckle's cage grab on to him, holding his arms, pushing him down to his knees, forcing his head down.

Astrid wants to scream, but she can't make her lungs work. She's frozen. They were never supposed to catch him; this was never supposed to happen.

She watches Stoick approach his son, sword gripped tightly in his hand. No, no, no, no!

"How are you controlling the dragons?!" Stoick barks at Hiccup.

Hiccup keeps his head lowered, says nothing.

Growling, Stoick rips Hiccup's helmet off his face. "Speak!" He roars. "Speak or die!"

From the sidelines of the entire ordeal, Gustav drops his sword. No one pays him any attention, but Astrid feels her stomach plummet. Gustav saw her and Hiccup, saw her helping him. She made him promise to keep it a secret, but he had no idea who the 'fisherman' really was.

Hiccup still says nothing, his head still lowered to face the ground. He makes no sign that he even heard Stoick speak, defiant until the end.

With a righteous roar, Stoick raises his sword above his head.

"Stop!" Astrid finally finds her voice. For any other person Stoick may not have not followed her instructions, but Astrid was one of the select few he… trusted. The blade pauses midair.

"We can't just kill him!" Astrid continues, walking shakily over to the hole in the cage and jumping through to the dusty pit below.

At the sound of her voice, Hiccup's head raises to look at her. He looks calm and collected, but there's a hint of uncertainty in his eyes; look too fast and you would miss it.

"We _have _to kill him!" Stoick argues, pointing his sword at his son. "It's either us or him!"

Astrid blinks, holding her arms up. "But it doesn't have to be that way! Don't you see, he—"

"SHE'S A TRAITOR!" All heads spin in the direction of the sidelines, where Blaze, red-faced and shaky, points an accusatory finger at Astrid. "She was working with Hiccup, I saw her!" When no one says anything he points to Gustav. "Gustav saw her, too! He was injured and she helped him recover!"

Everyone looks over at Gustav, who seems to visibly shrink on the spot. The poor boy looks like he'd like nothing more than to blend into the wall.

"Is this true, Gustav?" Stoick finally speaks, the same look of shock she'd seen when he first saw Hiccup returns to his face. His tone has become weak, but she can still hear the anger burning underneath.

Before Gustav can speak, Astrid does. "It's true." She says loudly, and a collective gasp rips through the crowd. Beloved Astrid, strong Astrid, logical Astrid had _betrayed _them. "But it's not what it seems!" Astrid quickly goes on the defensive, trying to keep her position to speak. To _show _them. "We don't understand—!"

"Get her!" Stoick yells over her, and the rest of the people in the arena react right away.

The Viking nearest to Astrid grabs her shoulder, although she can sense it's done a little apprehensively. Astrid kicks out his knees and throws him over her shoulder with a calculated toss.

She wants so yell at Stoick—yell at everyone, actually. But she can't find the time to speak as another Viking runs at her. Astrid side steps, dancing to the side and out of the way of his charge.

But there was no use fighting—it would only further her apparent mutiny. She wanted the people of Berk to see that she wanted to work with them, not against them. That she wasn't an enemy. So when the next Viking approaches her, she doesn't resist as he reaches out and grabs her arms, jerking her forward and holding her hands in place behind her back. Another villager jumps in to help him.

Hiccup looks almost sad, watching Astrid stop fighting.

But he doesn't understand her intentions and neither does the crowd as they point and jeer at the couple of traitors in the pit.

Stoick looks between them, a look of utter betrayal on her face. His grip tightens on his sword, his fingers curling around the handle hard enough to turn his knuckles white. The tight line of his mouth hardens.

"Stoick, I can explain everything, I swear!" Astrid tries not to struggle, but suddenly someone is pulling her away from the chief. She needs to talk to him, before anyone can do anything rash… or homicidal. "I just need you to listen to me!"

But the chief has stopped paying her any attention, turning away from her he looks over at his second hand, Spitelout. They convene for a few moments while the crowd begins to chant, "Execute! Execute! Execute!"

Astrid sees her friends, pressed up against some of the in-tact bars of the cage looking forlorn. For the first time in a while, Tuffnut doesn't have that goofy grin on his face, nor does Snoutlout have his usual sarcastic half-smile. They look absolutely lost, devastated.

"I'm sorry," Astrid mouths at them, hoping they can understand her. She didn't want this to happen, she didn't think it would end this way. She wished she could talk to them properly, tell them that they had to continue on without her. Just because she was gone didn't mean they had to give up on the future they had talked about.

"Execute! Execute! Execute!"

The crowd is too loud now, and Astrid is unable to hear as Stoick approaches Hiccup again, yelling down at his son with outright fury, spittle flying from his mouth.

Hiccup doesn't react, doesn't flinch, doesn't even blink. Astrid wonders what he must be thinking, why he doesn't at least say _something. _Had he really just decided to give up, just like that? The Hiccup she knew would never do that, so what was he doing?

"Stoick!" Astrid yells again, ready to all but beg in Hiccup's defense. She couldn't watch him die, couldn't let Stoick kill his son. Even as the pitch and tone of the crowd begins to speed up to match the beat of Astrid's racing heart, she can't tear her eyes away.

"Execute! Execute! Execute!"

But now the perfect rhythm of the chant is broken up with the screams of people getting impatient, yelling things like 'kill the traitor already!' and 'He doesn't deserve your mercy, chief!'

Stoick raises his sword in the air again, and Astrid can't breathe anymore. The crowd explodes into cheers as the call to execute fades away.

"Please, Stoick, please!" Astrid pleads, throwing her entire weight against the strong arms of the Vikings holding her. The man struggles to hold her, but doesn't lose his grip. Astrid brings her leg back, kicking the man in the shins as hard as she can.

He howls in pain and his grip on her loosens ever so slightly, but it's enough for Astrid to tear herself out of his hold. She staggers forward, barrelling at Stoick as fast as she can.

The others notice and run in her way. The crowd notices too, and the change in their chatter makes Stoick stop to look around at the commotion behind him. Even Hiccup looks up at her curiously.

Astrid doesn't have a weapon on her but she doesn't really need one. Slick and agile, Astrid slips between the arms of anyone that came close enough. But she's quickly circled, unable to move in any direction by the sheer number of Vikings still in the pit.

She stops running, squares off with the people surrounding her.

She's reminded of that early morning on the deck of the hunter ship, when Ryker and his crew had encircled her. But this time… she recognises the faces of the people around her, and it makes her hesitate. Lars, young Hildi Ulfson, Spitelout, Bucket, Silent Sven, Bard. All people she knew and respected growing up, all people she wanted to protect as much as she wanted to protect Hiccup. She didn't want to hurt any of them, that's why she had taken so many risks already.

Astrid sighs. "Please, Stoick, just don't hurt him." She says, trying to speak over the heads of those surrounding her. "If you still have any faith in me, then please just give me a chance to explain!"

From nowhere comes the terrifying sound of bone hitting steel, and Astrid strains herself to see what Stoick had done.

"Hiccup?!" She yells, but she can't see the top of his head anymore.

The circle of people closes in, and Astrid is too shocked to fight them off. Somebody grabs her arms again, but she isn't paying them any attention. She looks between them, sees Hiccup lying facedown in the dust, unconscious by the rise and fall of his back but otherwise visibly unharmed.

Astrid feels like she's about to faint in relief.

"Get them out of here!" Stoick instructs, and Astrid is dragged away to the sound of the booing crowd.

.

.

.

Astrid was wrong. Berk _did _have a jail.

It was damp and falling apart from years of neglect and disuse, and was probably used as a barn at some point of it's existence judging by the smell, but it had bars and locking doors and it kept Astrid from leaving.

But even her brief moment of surprise isn't enough to distract her from the whirlpool of rage and panic and uncertainty in her heart. For the brief second Hiccup had tried to do the right thing, her heart had soared. But everything after that had gone downhill so fast—and now she was here, and Hiccup was captured, and the entire charade was over.

Her, Hiccup and Toothless were in danger. Stoick had gotten his nightfury after all.

Astrid's pressed up in the corner of her cell, knees hugged to her chest and face buried in her thighs. The straw underneath her crackles as she shifts. She can't cry, she's not upset. She's just a churning pool of emotion.

She hadn't seen Hiccup since they were in the arena, since Stoick hit him over the head with his sword. The other Vikings had immediately brought her here, and she expected Hiccup to be not far behind. But the minutes were ticking by and there was no sign of him. The uneasiness in Astrid's gut is growing.

Maybe they wanted to put him somewhere more secure… or maybe Stoick had changed his mind and finished it all. The thought makes Astrid's knees shake.

The door to the building flies open, and Astrid's head shoots up in the direction of the squeaky hinges. Two large Vikings barely squeeze through the doorway, Bard and the blonde guy who's name she can neve remember, Hiccup draped between them. He looks resilient, eyes open and focused on the ground, face neutral. But his armour is gone and there's a noticeable purple welt on his forehead. Astrid's heart clenches at the sight of him, but another part signs in relief. He was okay(ish).

"Astrid," Bard nods at her politely as they pass her cell, stopping at the one right after.

Hiccup doesn't fight them as Bard step forward, pushing a cell door open as the other tosses the dragon master inside. Hiccup stumbles, but catches his footing and glares at the two Vikings as they lock the door behind him.

Astrid crawls over to the bars separating their cells. "Hiccup!" Bard and the other guy seem to realize they may have made a mistake by putting both of them in neighbouring cells, but scurry out anyway.

Hiccup looks her way as the sound of his voice, his eyes lighting up at the sight of her but quickly dimming as he regains his composure. He was still mad.

"Hey," He says indifferently.

"Stop it!" Astrid growls at him, sticking a hand through the bars and waving him over. "Come here and let me see your face!"

He looks like he's contemplating it for a second, but then shrugs his shoulders and walks over to her, sitting cross-legged on the dirty ground in front of her. Without saying anything, he leans forward enough for Astrid to be able to touch the mark on his face.

She presses the spot gingerly, notices him try and stifle a wince. "Is this from Stoick?" She asks quietly, wishing there was something she could do to stop the swelling.

"I think so." He sounds disinterested. "I'm not entirely sure, everything after I got hit is a bit of a blur."

Astrid looks at the outline of the bruise, sees the colour, notices the edges and realizes it wasn't done growing. Hiccup was going to have quite the mark on his head when it was done developing. "He didn't have to hit you this hard." Astrid mumbles, lowering her hand but still inspecting the mark.

"But will I live, doctor?"

Astrid smiles at the playful glimmer in his eye. "Maybe. But I might need to run some further tests, I think your head might be empty."

He grins at her, but then the weight of the situation must hit him again and it returns to a frown.

"Why don't you just tell them, Hiccup? Who cares at this point? They're going to kill you anyway."

"Toothless will be in danger," Hiccup growls, the life returning to his tone, his expression. "And if the alpha goes, who even know what will happen with the rest of the dragons. I won't do that to him; I'll die first."

Astrid can't argue with him on that. So she gently touches the side of his face, careful not to touch the developing bruise. She wants to comfort him; tell him everything is going to be alright. But she can't find the words, because she knows it will only be a lie.

"I'm getting out of here, Astrid." He says, leaning away from her touch and climbing to his feet.

She looks up at him, puzzled. "What do you mean you're getting out of here?"

"I _mean_ I'm going to sink this gods-forsaken island and never, ever, ever return. What else would it mean?"

"But… but you're in jail!"

Hiccup looks down to meet her gaze for the first time since he'd gotten there. "Do you really think I couldn't break out of here whenever I wanted to?"

Astrid feels the ghost of a bitter smile on her face. "So if you have the ability to break out at any time, why are you here?" She asks him.

Hiccup half shrugs, looking like he lost for words. He begins playing with the cuffs of his shirt, and she can tell he's struggling with what to say next. His mind is all over the place, racing, as he looks after every thing and surface except for her. "Fine." Hiccup sighs, defeated, shaking his head.

"You know I came to this island to destroy it. And after our run in in the tunnels, I was reminded all over again. But I ignored my better judgement, all of my instincts because I was in love with you." He says it matter-of-factly, as if the words held no meaning anymore.

Astrid doesn't know whether she should be flattered or taken aback.

He doesn't give her a chance to speak. "And the only reason I kept coming back, the _only_ reason I even showed up to meet you on that first night, the only reason I never went through with any of my plans isn't because I had a change of heart, Astrid, it's because of you. Because I loved you since we were kids, and… the thought of killing you…"

"Hiccup…" It's all Astrid can think to say, suddenly overloaded with information she's having a hard time processing. He loved her—since they were kids she knew, but not now, not to this day. And to think it'd had such a long-lasting effect on him.

He's not done, and he starts to pace around the small confines of his cell. "I let myself get distracted by all of your crazy ideas," He says, waving his arms on 'crazy'. "And I thought to myself, I don't know, that maybe you were right. Maybe we could make a difference. But I was kidding myself, I really was, because without you in the picture… I don't give a crap about the rest of them. They're still the horrible people I knew from five years ago."

"You're wrong," Astrid denies. "It's not just me, you know it's not! I…" But she doesn't know what to say that would be convincing, with any evidence. All she could say for certain was her gut feeling, that she knew what he was saying wasn't true. Hiccup wasn't evil, she knew he wasn't, but he was still convinced he was; even after everything that had happened.

"But I've got it all figured out." He continues as if he can't hear her. "I came to this island with a mission, and I'm not going to give up on it. I can't keep doing it, Astrid…" He looks up at her, green eyes full of sadness. "You're not ready to change for me like I was for you."

"That's not true…!" But as soon as she says it, she knows it's a lie. Hiccup had been so willing to wait for her, to follow her whims, to try and cooperate with her rules… and throughout it all, she still couldn't make a decision for him. She just kept stringing him along.

"Yes, it is!" Hiccup barks, although his voice considerably lowers when he sees her expression. "It is, and you know it. It's all over my head, anyway. Toothless and I have our roles, and the dragons need to be protected. It's not exactly work that can be passed on and it's a full time job. I…" He struggles to finish his sentence. "I should have never allowed my feelings to get in the way of my duty, and neither should you. Like I said… it wasn't meant to be."

Astrid grips the cell bars, feeling suddenly weak in her entire body. She can't look at him even as he watches her, it'll only make her more upset. He was right, he really was. She doesn't know what else to say, only that she wishes that it could have all been different. Only that he still had the power to change it all, he just had to find that solution.

"So…" Her voice trembles. "You came here to say goodbye? You almost let your head get chopped off so you could say _goodbye_?"

"I came here to get the gronckle. I didn't want any dragons left behind. But it's probably been dead for a while, knowing him. But I allowed myself to get caught to say goodbye, yea."

"Well… goodbye."

"Unless you want to come with me."

"But…" She raises her head to squint up at him. He doesn't look cold, not anymore. "even after everything, you still want me to come with you?"

"Like I said, I give in to my feelings even when I shouldn't. It's why I didn't kill Toothless all those years ago, so maybe it's not always illogical. But I already know that if you stay here, it'll be a lot harder for me to finish my mission."

His mission, being to destroy Berk.

At this point, Astrid had no hope for a fulfilling life on Berk. She should hate the villagers, even. She should grab Hiccup's hand and bust out of there if she knew what was good for her. But like her with Hiccup, Astrid doesn't want to see her parents die. See her friends die. Even Stoick didn't deserve to have his entire home destroyed. And Hiccup… he might still think he has to, but destroying Berk wouldn't make him see the kindness he still has inside him. It would only act to erode him further, destroying the person she knew and still knows buried beneath this visage of a cold killer. If her death would make him think twice about the things that he does, it wouldn't be a waste.

If it meant protecting her friends just a little longer, and if it meant maybe making Hiccup think twice, then she has no choice in the matter.

"I can't." Astrid says, and Hiccup visibly deflates.

"After everything… why?" He looks positively hurt, and Astrid doesn't know what to tell him. "I don't understand it… after everything that's happened…"

Astrid opens her mouth to answer when the door to the prison bursts open and a stream of people leak inside. Astrid's parents lead the way, followed by Snoutlout and his brooding father, with Stoick and Bard bringing up the rear.

"Astrid!" Her mother nearly shrieks when she sees her daughter in the cell.

Hiccup suddenly looks uncomfortable, and goes to lean against the stone wall as if he couldn't get far enough away from other people.

"Hi, mom." Astrid says. She'd never been more embarrassed in her life, sitting in the little jail cell. She can't imagine what it must be like for her parents to see their only daughter locked up. It must be quite a shock for her to go from potential chief on one day to felon the next.

Her mom jumps on the bars, pushing herself against them even though they don't budge. "Oh my gods, what happened?" She turns to Hiccup, scowling. "What did you do to my little girl?!"

Hiccup doesn't say anything, just folds him arms over his chest and looks indignantly away.

"He didn't _do_ anything to me." Astrid says, reclaiming her family's attention. "He showed me the reality of our situation."

"Oh gods," Her mother wails. "That's exactly what cousin Ragnar said before he joined that cult!"

"No, you've got it all wrong!" Astrid says loudly, climbing to her feet. "This isn't how I wanted it to go! But the dragons, they're not what we think they are, they're kind! The only reason that they ever needed to steal our food in the first place is because they were following order from their queen!"

"And who's their queen now, Astrid?" Her father says, calm and collected but with a dangerous tone to his voice. "It's that boy. He's been manipulating you, you just need to tell the chief and we can take you home."

"You're not listening to me!" Astrid screams, banging her hand against the metal bars of the cell, sending them rattling to the rafters. "It's a long story, but if you'd just let Hiccup explain it, you'd understand. I can't explain it like he can." Astrid says, and all eyes turn to Hiccup.

The dragon rider doesn't even blink, stare level and noncommittal, as he glowers at everyone in the room. His eyes linger the longest on his father.

When he doesn't speak, her father continues. "He has no defense, Astrid, he—"

"You're right." Hiccup says simply, and Astrid's parents begin a chorus of protests to the chief. "Lay off of her. I'm the one you want, not her."

Astrid's not listening to them. "Hiccup!" She yells at him.

"Astrid," The chief finally speaks up. "What did he tell you? Do you know how his control over the dragons works?"

"I'd never tell her something like that." Hiccup says before she can respond. "And it doesn't even matter, because my dragons are on their way as we speak."

"That's impossible." Spitelout jeers. "You don't have that kind of power. You're not a god."

"Maybe not, but I have the power of one on my side." Hiccup says mysteriously.

"Who's helping you?" Stoick asks just as Spitelout asks what he means.

Hiccup doesn't respond, turning his nose up. That dangerous glint that Stoick had earlier that day returns to his eyes.

"Hiccup," Snoutlout speaks for the first time since he walked in. "Don't do this, please."

"It's too late." Hiccup says. "This was gonna happen the moment I got here."

Everyone on the other side of the bars looks like their about to burst with question, but only Astrid understands his meaning. Toothless had called the dragons, and even if Hiccup changed his mind he didn't have a way of stopping them now.

The door to the prison nearly flies off its hinges for the third time that day, the underused door protesting loudly and grabbing everyone's attention. A panicked and bedraggled Viking appears in the doorway, panting loudly. "Chief! The dragons, they're here!"

Spitelout looks at Hiccup, eyes wide, as if maybe he did have magical powers.

Just then, something grabs the Viking standing by the door by the scruff of his shirt, flinging him through the air and out of view of the doorway. Toothless sticks his head through the door of the jail, hissing at the people inside.

Hiccup smiles at the sight of his dragon.

"How—" Stoick begins, reaching for his sword again.

The ceiling explodes into a waterfall of wooden shards, and everyone instinctually ducks down to cover their heads except for Hiccup, who sidesteps out of the way of the wooden planks. A monstrous nightmare sticks its head into the hole it just made, screams in the direction of Stoick and the others before lowering its head inside and allowing Hiccup to wrap an arm around it's spindly neck.

Hiccup looks sadly over at Astrid before he's lifted off the ground and out of the hole in the roof by the dragon like some kind of bizarre elevator.

"See ya later!" He waves sarcastically with his free hand as he disappears outside.

"No!" Stoick lunges forward, grabbing the bars that separated them. "Dammit!"

Toothless disappears from the doorway, but from her new skylight in the ceiling, Astrid can see it all. Rows and rows of dragons, swooping around in the air above. They replace the clouds, block out the sun, simply take over the sky. And this time, they weren't here to be a distraction.

This was it.

"What do we do, Stoick?" Spitelout looks over at his chief, suddenly fearful.

"We go after him!" Stoick yells, motioning for Spitelout to follow him out.

"If this building collapses, it's not going to take my daughter with it!" Astrid's mother says to the chief's back. "Release her!" She demands.

Stoick contemplates for a second, but he looks over at Astrid and sighs. He motions at Bard. "Get the key, let her out. We have bigger problems." He says as he returns to running out of the building.

Just as bard heads over to the wall to grab the key, the wall bursts open as a whispering death breaks through, lines of teeth grinding the wood of the wall in it's way and sending wood flying, half-burying Bard in debris. The Vikings outside Astrid's cell fall to the side to narrowly avoid being chopped into pieces. The dragon is just narrow enough to fly between the cells and as it glides towards the door, Stoick and Spitelout stop moving just long enough for Stoick to leap forward and drives his sword into the neck area of the dragon. The snake-like dragon flies into wooden floor with a harrowing crunch, curling and convulsing on the ground in pain.

It waves its spiky tail in Stoick's direction, preventing him and Spitelout from getting any closer. With the sword still sticking out of it's body, the whispering death beats its wings weakly and half-drags itself through the rest of the building, breaking through the opposite wall and back outside.

Now the building was definitely going down, it was only a matter of minutes. With a giant hole in the ceiling and two in the wall, there really wasn't much keeping it together, let alone qualifying it as a _building_.

But the key is somewhere buried beneath the remnants of the wall, or maybe scrap metal in the belly of the whispering death by now. Stoick and Spitelout disappear through the hole the whispering death went to chase after Hiccup as Astrid's father dashes over to Bard to help him up.

"The key!" Snoutlout groans, examining the remnants of the wall. "Now what?" He hits the bars in frustration, and they tilt ever so slightly. The building around them creaks, threatening the collapse.

"You guys get out of here!" Astrid yells as the ceiling begins to crumble above them.


	22. The Girl Breaks Free

**A/N: THIS IS NOT THE LAST CHAPTER OF THE STORY! It was supposed to be, but it got too long. But we are nearing the end!**

**So I know things look bad right now for Astrid and Hiccup, but... I'm about to make things infinitely worse. Actually, I'm still not done wrecking absolutely everything. There isn't a low I'm not willing to go! Sorry (not sorry). I had a few reservations about posting this chapter, so I hope everyone likes it!**

* * *

Snoutlout looks up at the falling ceiling apprehensively, but he doesn't budge from the spot. "Are you crazy?!" He yells. "We can't leave you, you're the only one that can stop him!"

"I can't," Astrid shakes her head, feeling herself sag as she speaks. If the realization that everything had gone to Hel hadn't let in yet, it was now. "He won't listen to me anymore. He thinks he's beyond repair! You just need to show him it's not too late to change, it doesn't have to be me who does it! Please, you guys have got to get out of here!"

A stray magnesium blast hits the broken ceiling, and all conversation stops momentarily as everyone covers their heads to protect from falling debris. Astrid watches, absolutely horrified as the building starts to shake. They didn't have long now.

"You guys have to fight!" Astrid says before everyone's recovered. "You can't die like this!"

"Stand back!" Everyone jumps as Bard barks his order. He dashes over from where Astrid's father had helped him up, pulling his hammer off his belt and bringing it down on the lock of the cell hard enough for it to almost invert itself. With a one-handed shake of the door, the latch unclicks and the door swings open with a moan.

He looks at Astrid, speaking above everyone else. "You have to put a stop to this. Everything will be destroyed if you don't." He says gruffly.

With a rickety creak, the wall that had once held the door gives in to the weight of the roof, and the side of the building begins to collapse in on itself. Wordlessly, the five people inside the building get the cue to split. Astrid sprints for the opposite hole in the wall as the building begins to come down behind her. Running for their lives, they race down the rest of the building and all but leap out the back hole, sailing out into the daylight.

Coming to a graceful stop on one knee, it takes Astrid a second to catch her bearings. But when she looks up, it takes her another minute altogether to recognize the place she is. She'd never seen so much chaos before, it was barely the Berk she'd remembered from less than an hour ago. Half of the structures that she'd seen when she'd been dragged into the jail were either torn straight from their supports or the pieces of a botched attempt. A number of buildings are simply on fire, smoke rising in big huffs, no one around to put them out. Nothing looked untouched, it was if a tornado had swept through the village.

The ground is littered with debris, forming obstacle courses in the streets. And… dragons lie on the ground, dead, dying. Many with large wounds and weapons sticking out from between their scales.

There's blood mixed in with the muddy ground. Maybe even more blood than just dragons could produce. It was horrifying to see, and Astrid can't stifle her gasp.

"Where is everyone?" Snoutlout asks, clearly just as awed. The entire area is like the calm after the storm (or maybe even before the storm?). Nothing moves, nothing makes a sound, it's as if the village were attacked by ghosts that appeared and vanished just as quickly. The shack in front of them burns leisurely, the fire popping every few minutes.

Up in the sky, the dragons continue to fly overhead ominously. They seem to be waiting for something.

"Defensive procedures." Bard says, rehanging his hammer on his belt. "The villagers fallen in to the centre of the village, maybe even to the Great Hall for protection. I can't imagine there are a lot of people left to fight after something like… this."

"Oh my gods, it's Lars!" Astrid's mother yells, pointing off in the direction of what Astrid recognizes as a man lying on the ground, half-hidden by a dragon corpse. Her parents run over to the man, her father pressing his head to the man's chest.

"He's still breathing, but bleeding badly!" He yells to the others. "He hasn't got much time; we have to get him help!"

"It's too dangerous to go to the heart of the village. If that's where everyone's gone, then that's where the dragons are. And Hiccup, too, probably." Snoutlout says.

"We just need to find somewhere safe." Astrid's mother says. "We'll find a shelter around here."

The pair of them hoist the man up between them, an arm around each shoulder. They begin to pull him away when her father stops, looking back at them over his shoulder. "Good luck, Astrid. We know you have it in you, sweetheart."

"Bye, dad." Astrid says weakly, watching them drag him off away from the centre of the village. They had so much confidence in her, thought that maybe she could stop Hiccup in a way that no one else could. But Astrid isn't nearly as sure as the rest of them are, but she doesn't want to dash their hopes that this could all be resolved. The thing was... Hiccup was doing this all because of her, after all. She wasn't sure this was a fire she could put out on her own.

"There may be other people who are hurt," Astrid says, trying to distract herself. She's suddenly very aware that there might not be just dead dragons lying on the ground. The situation was just snowballing into something else altogether. "We have to look for people."

"You have to find that boy," Bard says, and the no-nonsense tone in his voice makes her stop. "We don't have time. More could be dying as we speak if we let this go on. We'll deal with the survivors, you two go." His certainty in her makes Astrid's knees weak. She was going to let all of these people counting on her down.

Out of nowhere, a large dragon drops heavily on the ground in front of them. It scowls at them, as if knew that they would be easy pickings and to fight them would be a waste of his time. And a dragon that looked like that… she was sure that it was right. Roaring loudly, it bares it's perfect, triangular teeth.

Having visited Hiccup's mountain before, Astrid had seen some pretty nifty looking dragons. But the dragon before her looked downright _bizarre. _ It stood on its hind legs to give it an extra height, its arms ending in crab-like claws that probably wouldn't have been easy to stand on anyway. It's hide was jet black, with yellow mixing in on it's appendages. Behind its slim body, a trio of twisting, writhing tails with sharp scorpion tips rise above its shark-like head. The tails shake threateningly, poising to strike with lightning-fast speeds. It looked like the animal kingdom couldn't decide exactly what the dragon was supposed to be.

Despite her surprise, Astrid can't stop the feeling of panic rising in her throat. Gronckles, nadders, nightmares, zipplebacks… those were common dragons, the kind she'd been raised to be able to deal with. She could probably have stretched her skills, fought off a snaptrapper or a hobblegrunt or a speed stinger or two. But she was totally and completely unequipped to fight off something like this, or any of the other mysteries Hiccup had in his bag of obscure dragons.

"What do we do?!" Snoutlout asks Astrid, clearly feeling the fear she was feeling. When he looks over at her, she's honestly baffled. She wasn't like Hiccup; she didn't know the first thing about training a dragon… she had no idea if you could even train this weird shark-crab-scorpion beast. If she approached it, would it lash out? If she tried to calm it down, would it even listen?

"I've got this," Bard says with assurance, pulling his hammer off his belt again in stride. "You kids go." The dragon looks at the hammer as if he'd really enjoy chewing on it.

"You mean we can't stop it?" Snoutlout asks, backtracking ever so slightly.

"They're being controlled, or maybe being suggested to, I don't know." Astrid doesn't know what to do, where to go. If they left the dragon with Bard to fight alone, it would probably kill him. Astrid freezes as the dragon hisses, its three tails knitting together into one large one. That can't be good. "The point is, I'm not sure it can be reasoned with."

"Controlled…?" Snoutlout asks, bewildered.

With a terrifying hiss of air, the dragon's large tail strikes the ground so fast she can hardly see it. The three Vikings take a step (or more like a stumble) backwards.

"I'm going to distract it, you two make a break for it." Bard grits.

"No way." Astrid says, wishing more than ever she had a weapon on her. "We run or we fight to together. I'm not leaving any Viking behind."

The dragon's tail rattle threateningly. "Something tells me we're not going to be able to get away fast enough." Snoutlout says nervously.

With a hiss of air, the dragon's tail makes a lightning-fast stab at Bard. The Viking barely has time to raise his hammer in defence, the two clashing with a strong metal clang that made even Astrid's teeth rattle.

The dragon stabs again without missing a beat, and Bard rolls out of the way, dust flying as the sharp end misses him by centimetres.

"Sweet baby Thor," Snoutlout swears, pulling his mace free from its case on his hip. Astrid really, really wishes she had her own weapon right now.

The dragon's tail is fast and swift, and doesn't provide anything in warning as it strikes again at Bard. The man hasn't even had a chance to get back on his feet, all he can manage to do is crawl out of the way.

Noticing Snoutlout slowly inching closer. The dragon diverts its attention for a moment. It's three tails unknit themselves from each other.

"That's so bad!" Snoutlout squeaks right before he has to dive out of the way of one of the tails.

Now the three of them have their own tail to deal with. Astrid tumbles out of the way as the pointed tip tries to impale her and nearly hits home. At this point, she would have even been happy with just something to _hit _it with whether it was sharp or not. She looks around, trying to spot something she could at least grip. She doesn't even have a chance to get over to the loose plank on the ground when the black dragon goes for another attack with it's tail...s.

They go at it for a little bit after that. The dragon attacking with its trio of tails and Astrid, Snoutlout and Bard just nearly falling out of the way. But the dragon is fast and clearly getting the idea that attacking them all at once wasn't working like it should. It also looked like it was getting bored of this whole thing.

Astrid's nearly counting its attacks, timing it so she knew when to get out of the way.

"This is a waste of time!" Bard growls. "You guys need to go!"

Then, all at once, the next strike doesn't come. Astrid is confused for a moment, looks up at the tails. She follows their individual lengths to see Bard, two tails stuck in the ground that he avoided, but one of them buried deeply in her shoulder.

"Ugh." Is all he can say, the hammer dropping from his hand. He falls to his knees.

"No!" Astrid yells.

"I can't feel my arms." Bard growls, falling over limply. "I can't feel anything!"

"It's venemou—Agh!" Snoutlout's stopped mid-sentence as the dragon gears back around, stopping its march on Bard and spinning quickly, stabbing at Snoutlout to fast he barely has a chance to get away. "I don't want to know what the other tails do!"

"Leave me!" Bard says, but Astrid can't tear her eyes away from the motionless man on the ground. She can't just leave him, or Snoutlout, who staggers backwards holding his mace in front of his face protectively.

_Fwip! _Spine shots from a deadly nadder shear above Astrid's head, nearly trimming her hair as they impale themselves at the feet of the three-tailed dragon.

"Good gods, one at a time!" Snoutlout whines.

Then the deadly nadder comes into view, and Astrid's heart swells. "Stormfly!" She yells as the dragon lands before her.

But Stormfly isn't listening. She positions herself between Astrid and the other dragon, her usual child-like demeanor completely gone. She lowers her head, holding her tail aloft and ready to strike again.

The other dragon isn't having it. It grunts in their direction, careless. _Get out of the way, little dragon. _It seems to say. _This is a fight for the big kids. _

Stormfly releases another spineshot in defiance. The dragon jumps out of the way, or defends from the spines with its armoured hide. Now it seems truly pissed, the time for scolding over. It takes a shot at Stormfly with one of its tails, Stormfly beating it's tail away with her own. The other dragon makes to dive into Stormfly, claws extended. Any other nadder may have been caught, but Stormfly is smaller and quicker than her full-grown counterparts and ducks out of the way.

Roaring wildly, the black dragon leaps in the air, maybe realizing it had to put some effort in for this now. Before it can even reach full height it begins to spin like a wheel, landing hard while planting its tails firmly in the ground where Stormfly had been another second ago.

Stormfly shoots another round of spine shots, making the other dragon grumble and move out of the way.

For half a second, Astrid thinks maybe her dragon could win.

Then the other dragon stabs the ground with a tail, forcing Stormfly to jump aside and into the length of a different one waiting to catch her. The tail wraps around her, and the dragon flaps its wings as the pair rise in the air. Stormfly struggles, but her age has now betrayed her and she's too weak to fight free.

"Stormfly!" Astrid yells, running over to them. She can't reach where they are in the air, but she stands underneath, watching up in terror. "Put her down!" Why hadn't she found something to throw yet?

The other dragon seems to laugh, it's tails rising around Stormfly threateningly. It was going to stab her, who knew how many times, and who knows how that much venom would affect a nadder.

"Please, if you can understand me!" She calls out to it. "She's not the one you want, it's me! Leave her alone!"

"Astrid, don't!" Snoutlout yells.

The dragon looks down at her, mystified. It looks like it can't really decide what to do, like maybe it had gotten what she was saying. Then it snarls, shaking its head and jabbing Astrid's dragon with one of it's sharp tails.

"No!" Astrid screams as her dragon slips from the dragon's tail and falls to the floor as limp as Bard was when he was pinched. She runs over to her dragon, dropping beside her and holding as much of her head as she possibly could. "Stormfly..."

Stormfly moans, motionless and scared but with only one hit, she wasn't in any life-threatening danger (Astrid only hoped).

The misfit dragon shakes the ground as it lands again. Astrid can sense it behind her, but she doesn't want to leave Stormfly's side. It may be so incredibly stupid, but she wasn't going to leave Strormfly just like she wouldn't leave anyone else. This dragon was part of her family.

"Hey!" Snoutlout calls, trying to distract it.

In that half second the dragon turns its muzzle in Snoutlout's direction, Astrid spots a stray spine from Stormfly's tail stuck in the ground. Astrid reaches over, pulling it free.

Without wasting time to calculate a strike, the black dragon pulls its tails together and sweeps them through the air, slamming into Snoutlout and knocking him off his feet, sending him tumbling across the ground.

Astrid stands beside her dragon, holding the loose spine close to her side. Whatever this dragon intended to do, she wasn't going to stand idly by. "Please don't hurt my dragon." She says to it.

The other dragon stops, tilting its head at her curiously. The red, deepset eyes in it's large head narrow. It eyes the spine in Astrid's hand, not understanding. Finally, after studying the pair of them for a moment, it rolls its eyes and growl indifferently. Astrid lets out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding in as the black dragon extends its wings and descends back into the sky, flying into the fold and disappearing.

After a second of watching it retreat, Snoutlout speak up. He manages to push himself onto his feet, although he clutches his arm with his other hand, elbow cupped in palm. "What just happened?"

Astrid feels a ghost of a smile. "I think it got the idea. It figured out we weren't enemies when Stormfly stood up for me... and I stood up for her."

Stormfly squints her eyes, the corner of her muzzle turning upwards in what looked like a smile.

"Astrid..." Bard grunts, face half pressed into the ground. "We can't do this all day. You need to go."

Astrid nods, knowing he's right but hesitant to go. "I can't leave you guys here."

"I'll take care of them." Snoutlout says, continuing to hold his arm. "I'm not the only one numbed up. Just go, please. I don't think I could handle another one of those, let alone..." He looks up at the sky as he trails off. Another attack like that, another crazy dragon, they wouldn't be able to handle.

"Okay." Astrid says, beginning to walk backwards, taking one last good look at her friends. "I'll find him and I'll stop him." Even though she still wonders if she even can. But if anyone can try... it has to be her.

"I know you can." Snoutlout says, catching her eye. Astrid runs a hand over the head of her dragon appreciatively after tucking the loose nadder spine into her belt for later. Then she turns completely and breaks into a full-out run.

She can't know for sure where Hiccup would be, but if what Snoutlout said was right, then he would go to the centre of the village. He could just a likely be on Toothless, watching Berk from above on Toothless, but it's not Hiccup's style. If he wanted things destroyed, he could always send dragons... but if she'd learned anything from their many run-ins with the hunters, Hiccup liked to do things himself.

Astrid runs between burning houses, chunks of charred debris, ducks through battles between dragons and Vikings. She wants to stop and fight, stop and help them all, but she just can't. And as she runs closer and closer to the heart of the village, she sees more dragon along the streets. They don't pay her much mind, but she feels their eyes on her. She knows that she'll be the next one locked up in a battle if she doesn't move quickly.

This is the assault they had been anticipating for weeks, and for some reason it still looked even more horrible that Astrid could have imagined it. Is this really what Hiccup wanted to see? Maybe the person she had met weeks ago, but the Hiccup she knew... he didn't, he couldn't... could he?

When she reaches the main stretch of the village, she finally sees Hiccup, stopping in her tracks. He walks leisurely down the length of the street, a found sword in each hand like some kind of grim reaper. Toothless crawls along the tops of the still-standing buildings in pace with his friend, eyes out for anything Hiccup may not be able to handle.

Slipping past Toothless' careful watch, another Viking jumps out from behind a building, clearly meaning to ambush Hiccup.

Like a fire has been suddenly set underneath him, Hiccup seems to come to life. His eyes burn intensely as the villager approaches, and as they come closer and closer, Hiccup speeds up to meet him at a run. Their blades clash, and in the very next move Hiccup parries the villager's blade away, sending it flying out of his hand and through the air. With his other sword, Hiccup slashes viciously across the man's chest, sending him sprawling onto the ground.

Crimson blood drips from Hiccup's sword, falling in the dirt and streaming down the blade to stain the handle.

Astrid feels herself choke. What had he just done?

Hiccup looks up, hearing her impossibly quiet noise. The corner of his mouth turns up, but it's not genuine. The wild look in his eyes, the insane looseness of his shoulders... he's putting on a face, trying to look like nothing's bothering him. (Or maybe he really has lost it, although Astrid chooses to put that thought away). "Astrid." He acknowledges her lightly. "Good to see you didn't get crushed in that building." He does that fake smile again.

It was that same fake, gross smile he'd shown off before they'd become friends. It was his act, his defense mode. He thought he was fooling her, fooling everyone into thinking he didn't have a heart. But when he resigned himself like this, Astrid understood what he was doing now: he was just fooling himself, making himself think he didn't care so it wouldn't hurt so much to do what he was doing. But maybe he didn't realize she could see right through it this time around.

"Have you seen my father?" He asks, shaking his bloody sword lightly to drop some of the red liquid off. "I've got some business to finish with him." He looks absolutely insane.

"Why are you doing this?!" Astrid yells at him, completely unaware she'd stopped moving. She runs over to him but stops a few paces short, not wanting to get too close when he had that dangerous glint in his eye. Had she really done this? Had her decision to stay really made him become this again? Astrid refused to believe that he was willing to become this again. It couldn't be as easy as it was for him before to this craziness had been lurking underneath the surface the entire time.

"I'm sure he's wondered," Hiccup continues to babble, completely ignoring her. "If I had in me to kill him. If I had the ability, even." He looks at his sword, observes the pattern of the beading blood. "But I'm sure he knows I've been getting ready for this day since he let me steal Toothless back."

"Hiccup." Astrid repeats, trying to catch his attention with her gaze. "Snap out of this." When he doesn't acknowledge her, she sucks up her apprehension and takes careful steps towards him. She notices the line of his mouth dip; this wasn't as easy for him as he was making it seem.

"Please." Astrid says calmly, slowly reaching out and putting a hand on his shoulder. "Stop it. You don't want to do this."

Since he'd broken out of Berk's jail Hiccup had been riding on the high of the panicked people of Berk around him, and Astrid's lack of energy seems to calm him down a little bit. His eyes flicker in her direction.

Astrid swallows, reassured by his silence. "What were you going to do, anyway? After we had gone? Was this still going to happen? You were going to let Berk be." Astrid speaks for him, and he doesn't protest. "Because you knew it wasn't that bad. You knew, maybe, things could change. I saw it on your face. Please don't let your father make you do something you'll regret for the rest of your life. You know this is wrong, I wouldn't feel the way I do about you if I thought you didn't."

Hiccup bristles at the mention of his father. Astrid thinks that maybe it was wrong to bring him up.

"Hiccup!" Someone else calls his name, and all at once she's lost his already fleeting attention. He shakes her hand away, turning in the direction of the person who'd called his name. Another Viking had slipped past Toothless, or perhaps the dragon was just letting it happen as he watches them all from the rooftops.

"Gustav!" Astrid yells when she sees him. "Get out of here!"

Gustav doesn't look deterred, but he also looks different from the last two times Astrid had seen him in battle. He carries his sword with him, clutched tightly in both hands. He doesn't look full of bravado like he did that first night when he'd attacked the gronckle. This Gustav looked careful, legs spread in a proper fighting stance, expression collected. He sees the people on the ground around himself, he knows how this goes. He probably knows he can't win. But he looks downright determined.

"I'm not going to let you face him alone." Gustav says, shaky but resolute. Gods, this was like the nightmare loose in the arena all over again.

Hiccup chuckles darkly. "You really want to try your luck, Gustav?"

"I'm not going to let Astrid stand up to you alone."

"You're brave, kid." Hiccup begins to walk at Gustav like he did with the first Viking Astrid saw. He was going… to kill Gustav.

In the next second, Hiccup and Gustav's blades clash, just like the last time. Astrid chases after Hiccup. Hiccup is too strong for Gustav, but the younger boy holds on to his sword too tightly and falls right over, weapon and all. With his other hand, Hiccup raises his sword for the kill.

Astrid pulls the nadder spine from her belt, pressing it into the fabric of Hiccup's shirt. "Stop this, right now." She says, deadly serious. "Don't you touch him."

After a terse moment, Hiccup laughs and drops his hand, letting his blades fall to his sides. "It's like we're back at it again."

"Get up, Gustav, and get out of here." Astrid commands before Hiccup can change his mind.

"But Astrid—"

"Gustav, please don't argue with me on this. You need to leave." Astrid says, tracing the tip of the spine up Hiccup's back, stopping it against his neck. She applies an extra bit of pressure, hoping to keep him subdued.

"Best listen to the lady," Hiccup taunts.

Nodding vigorously, very clearly relieved, Gustav scurries away before climbing back to his feet. "I'll get the chief, I'll—"

"Now!" Astrid yells, and without saying another word the young ex-trainee takes off. Toothless watches him go, following until he lost interest and looking back at Hiccup and Astrid.

Astrid drops the spine, then pushes his shoulder roughly. "He's just a kid, you idiot! Don't get him involved in this."

"He was born involved in this, Astrid." Hiccup says simply. "The person he is, the person he is going to be, they are my enemy. They _deserve _to die for the things they've done."

"You've lost your mind!" She growls, giving him a nice shove again. He doesn't stop her. "You can't do this! You can't…" Astrid trails off, realizing Hiccup wasn't listening to her anymore. No, he was _laughing. _All-out, uncontrollable hysterics, as if she'd just made the world's best joke. As if the idea that he'd lost his mind was so crazy. Or maybe he really had…

No. No, this was an act. All a show he put on for his own benefit above anyone else's. But still… she watches him double over, clutch his stomach, and it makes her incredibly nervous. No one should be laughing in a situation as tense as this. "I should have known!" He howls between chortles. "I should have known you'd do it to yourselves, it was only a matter of time!"

"What…" Now Astrid is really lost. She doesn't even know how to respond.

Seeing her confusion and recovering himself a little, Hiccup points a blade to somewhere behind her.

Astrid looks over her shoulder, sees what he's looking at. A few metres behind it all, she sees the corpse of a whispering death. Not just any whispering death, Astrid realizes, but the one Stoick had stabbed, the chief's sword still stuck in the dead dragon's neck. It looks like it had crash landed into the gravel, jaw half-open and buried in the dirt, eyes wide and dead.

"The whispering death," Hiccup cackles. "Somebody killed it. Probably my father, knowing how gutsy he always is."

"What are you talking about?" Astrid sounds desperate. This creepy, laughing-at-death Hiccup was freaking her out.

"You remember that time I kidnapped you, right? Screaming death island?" He asks her, still grinning.

"Yes… You told me there was a massive, island-eating dragon that lived there to scare me."

"I wasn't lying." He says. "The screaming death is as real as your or me. And that—" He points to the dead whispering death behind them. "Is its mother. This dragon always has a kind of sense of where she is, and when it figures out that she's dead…" He shakes his head, clearly trying to keep the laughter back. "It's coming to Berk. And it's going to _consume _this island."

Astrid feels the weight of his words drop heavily on her shoulders. After everything they had been through, all the plans they had made and broken, the things they may have wanted to accomplish. She'd just fought a crazy, three-tailed dragon for Thor's sake. And it was gone, just like that. "What… what can we do to stop it?"

Hiccup snorts. "Stop it? You can't stop it. It's smarter, faster, stronger and more powerful than any dragon known to Viking." He whistles with two fingers in his mouth. Toothless leaps off the roof, comes bounding over to Hiccup; the dragon rider doesn't waste any time hopping aboard his dragon.

"But Toothless—" Astrid begins, seeing the dragon and remembering his impossible power over other dragons.

"The screaming death doesn't listen to anyone, not even the alpha. Especially when its mother has just been killed." Hiccup recites like a text book. He looks too smug, too happy with himself, as if he couldn't believe he hadn't thought of something this ingenious before.

Above her, Astrid barely registers the sky, sees that it's clearing up. The dragon that had been hovering above the village are beginning to scatter, revealing the brilliant blue sky beneath. They turn in all directions, flying away from the island. Evacuating…?

"There has to be a way to stop it!" Astrid explodes.

Toothless' wings spread wide. "There isn't. I'm sorry, Astrid, I really am." But he doesn't look it one bit. Before she can argue with him, the pair take off into the sky, joining the other dragons in their retreat.

Astrid can't think of anything to do but watch, baffled. She couldn't stop Hiccup, after all… and now it was too late to stop the screaming death from coming and eating the entire island.


	23. The Boy Breaks Free

**A/N: Hey, everyone! I'm so sorry this took so long, I was honestly not expecting it to. This is also not the final chapter, sorry... it's really supposed to be, but they keep ending up longer than I think they will be! Well, that's all I have to say. Please enjoy and thanks for hanging in there!**

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Astrid spends far too much time of her next moment staring up at the sky, at the spot Hiccup went from a boy on a dragon to speck in the fold of the dragon hordes.

He was gone.

Berk was in ruins.

People were dying.

And now the screaming death was coming to finish it all. As if she didn't already need the cherry on top of this disaster of a day.

Was there anything else should could really do at this point? Is there really anything you _can _do against an unstoppable, all-powerful monster of a dragon with a thirst for blood?

"Astrid!" Gustav reappears from where he'd gone to hide, his sword still clutched to his side tightly. He scuttles over to her, glancing up at the sky ever few steps. "What happened? Why did he leave?" he asks nervously.

She doesn't know what to say. She's not sure there's anything she can say that would make any sense… or that wouldn't scare the living daylight out of him. It wouldn't do any good for her to cause a panic.

Astrid hasn't taken her eyes off the sky, but she can feel her sight grow unfocused. It wasn't like her to shut down like this—she'd _never _done something like this before. But the feelings of hopelessness were creeping in, flooding her mind and locking up her joints. She couldn't come up with a single positive way to spin it, and she feels her knees shake, threatening to give out. It was like the end of the world.

"Look out!" Gustav screams, pushing her down. Astrid doesn't fight him, she doesn't really have proper control over her body, anyway. She falls into a crouch, and Gustav ducks down beside her.

A plasma blast flies over their heads, nearly turning Gustav into a singe spot on the ground. Astrid feels a dramatic swoop of wind next to her ear—and then her boots are no longer touching gravel, her hands are no longer pressed into the dirt, and she's in the air.

Something grabs her firmly by the belt, holds her aloft as she sees the ground quickly becoming farther and farther away.

Hiccup tosses Astrid over the back of his saddle like a piece of cargo. Astrid flops forward, catches her breath. With that one good knock, her senses seem to return to her. She recognizes the back of his scruffy head, and the fight returns within the next swoop of Toothless' wings.

"Hiccup!" She screeches, watching the ground become too distant to jump. The building below her become pebbles, Gustav becomes no bigger than her thumb. In a few more seconds, they'd probably be leaving the island. "What are you doing?!"

"I'm the villain, remember?" He calls nonchalantly over the wind. "I take what I want."

"You can't take _me!" _Astrid huffs.

"Sure I can. I was going to leave you behind, respect your wishes, _blah blah blah." _He makes a yapping motion with his hand. _"_But then I just figured you'd get over it. You'll thank me one day, even if you don't appreciate it now."

"I've had enough of this, Hiccup! Put me down, we have to go back to the village and stop this!" Astrid says, climbing onto her elbows behind him. The saddle is uncomfortably pressed into her chest, but she struggles to right herself while they were in motion.

But he doesn't say anything else, ignoring her pleads to reason with him.

And then Astrid did maybe one of the stupider things she'd admit to doing: She kicked Hiccup's foot.

"Odin almighty, Astrid!" Hiccup swears, shifting himself so he'd be out of her reach.

Astrid kicks him again, her legs free and unhindered by the saddle thanks to the way Hiccup tossed her, and with a simple click, the metal strap that held Hiccup's boot in place on Toothless' tail snaps right off. Hiccup's foot slips free of its place.

Toothless screeches, losing his ability to keep them aloft. The air seems to fall right out from beneath them as Toothless flails his wings and the trio begin to fall right out of the sky. Astrid awkwardly grabs on to Hiccup for dear life.

Yelling reassurances to his dragon with a calmness that tells her he'd probably done this before, Hiccup grabs tightly on to the saddle with one hand and wraps an arm around Astrid with the other. The ground gets very, very close.

Hiccup smacks his foot against the mechanism like you would a brake.

_Click. Click. _

He works his ankle, clearly trying to force the parts back in place, but nothing seems to be happening. Maybe the strap wasn't the only thing Astrid had broken. "Goddammit!" He swears loudly above the wind.

The trees below seem to rush up to meet them all at once. "Everyone hold tight!" Hiccup yells as they hit the trees.

Astrid almost immediately loses her grip on Hiccup as the branches of the trees rip at her, whipping her face and her arms and nearly tearing them apart if Hiccup hadn't been holding on to her so tightly. Toothless twists midair, wrapping Astrid and Hiccup up in his wings to shield them from most of the branches. Still, they grab onto her clothes and twist into her hair with a bone-crunching _oof! _they slam into the trunk of a massive tree. Or at least, Astrid thinks they do; her eyes are shut tightly.

Finally, with a final and momentum-stopping thump, the trio hit the mossy ground. The landing is not soft; Astrid's teeth chatter and her head slams into Hiccup's side. The nails of his hand seem to dig in painfully to her back, his knee hitting her hip hard enough to probably bruise it.

When Astrid finally opens her eyes, everything is dark. Then Toothless' wings fall away, exposing them to the sunlight, and she breathes out a sigh of relief. She wasn't dead… yet.

For a moment there's nothing but silence apart from their heavy breathing and the rustling of the trees they'd just upset.

Then Hiccup groans, lifting his chin to look back at Toothless. "You okay, bud?" He asks.

Toothless grunts noncommittally.

Hiccup sighs, letting his head fall back to the ground. "Thanks for blocking the fall, I owe you one."

The three of them continue to lie on the ground, catching their breaths. It was a miracle they'd all survived that tumble. Astrid's basically caught between Hiccup's side and his arm, and as much as she wants to jump away from him… the will to smack him, and all of her anger, has pretty much evaporated as quickly as it appeared.

And judging by Hiccup's tone, he's dropped a lot of the crazy. "You're an idiot, you know that?" He says to her, glancing her way.

Astrid blows a sigh into the fabric of his shirt. "I know. That… wasn't a good idea."

"You think?" He says sarcastically before rather gently pushing her aside. "Come on, get up. I've got to figure out what you broke."

Astrid tries her best to crawl off Toothless' wing as carefully as she can, not wanting to hurt the dragon at all. Hiccup takes a leaping step off, and Toothless rolls over and climbs to his feet. The dragon shuffles his wings together. If he could talk, by the look he's giving her he'd probably say something similar to what Hiccup said; maybe mixed with: "and you're lucky I don't smoke you for it."

Hiccup gets down on a knee next to Toothless' tail contraption. He starts fiddling with it, and with every twist of his wrist the gears make that empty clicking noise. Astrid watches over Hiccup's shoulder as two pieces that look like they should snap together continually don't.

Hiccup sighs, hanging his head. "Fantastic, Astrid. I'm going to need some tools to fix this. Of which, thanks to my father, were confiscated when they arrested me." He looks over his shoulder, glowering at her.

"Hey, I'm not the one that swooped out of the sky and kidnapped you! For the second time!"

Hiccup scoffs. "You aren't serious right now! You're telling me you'd rather sit there and wait to die than come with me?"

"Is that so hard to believe?"

"Yes, it really is!"

"Why'd you come back, anyway?" Astrid asks, changing the subject and catching him off guard.

He doesn't answer right away, and Astrid doesn't wait for him.

"You know what? Forget it. Bottom line is, I don't want to come with you. Even if it's impossible," She sighs heavily. "I'm not going to leave the island, even if there's no hope, I'm going to stay and fight for Berk. It's what I have to do." With that, Astrid spins around and begins marching in the direction of the village.

The sound of footsteps behind her makes her grit her teeth. She turns to face him. "Are you following me?"

"So what if I was?" He asks.

"Don't! You have no right to go back to the village, not after what you've done!" She says angrily.

"Well," Hiccup puts a finger on his chin. "Last I checked, it was _you _who broke Toothless' tail. And it was my father you stole my tools. And as 'brave' and 'noble' as you're being, I'm definitely not staying here when the screaming death arrives. So I need to get something to fix the part that's broken."

"Use a stick." Astrid grits. "I thought you were so great with building things?"

He sighs heavily, but continues to follow her with Toothless at his heels. "Do you really want me to be here when the screaming death comes? Toothless and I will be _devoured. _Who made you the authority on who gets to live and who gets to die?"

She doesn't stop walking, even if she doesn't want the pair of them following her. She was sure Hiccup would know his way back, anyhow. She has to get back to the village, she has to try and figure something out. She couldn't waste any more time arguing with Hiccup, not when it had nearly the same effectiveness as arguing with a rock.

Maybe this is exactly what she should have resigned herself to from the beginning. Maybe she couldn't really change his mind. But she still can't find it in herself not to back down.

"And who gave you that power, Hiccup? Who told you you could pick and choose the people you think deserve to die?!" She fights the urge to look back at his as she continues to move forward. She wants to gage his reaction, but realizes she may be better off just hoping and not knowing than seeing that everything she said had no effect… again. "You can't just bring an army of dragon and the screaming death to Berk because you think the village deserves it. It's not your call, and you know that!"

"I don't have a choice, Astrid." He says coldly. "It's the humans or the dragons, you know that."

"You don't have to _do _anything!" Astrid says. How could he say he had no choice in the matter? Destroying buildings and houses Vikings worked hard to build? Calling a horde of dragons to threaten people? Mowing people down in the streets, killing them all in cold blood?

"You keep saying the same things, Astrid." Hiccup says. "I know what you're trying to do, but it's never going to work. It's always been too late." She can almost hear his dark smile. "I already decided who I am. I know you tried, and you made a really great effort. But you'll never change me, I'll…" His voice trails off, the sound of his boots squishing the mud behind her stops abruptly.

Without realizing, Astrid turns around to look at him. The crease in his brow is finally smoothed out, as he glances down at the ground, searching. He looks absolutely lost for a moment, as if his purpose had suddenly been snatched away from him, like his world was crashing down around him. Toothless stands next to his friend looking absolutely bewildered.

Then it all clicks. The thing he'd been saying, over and over, his excuse for everything he did was that the Vikings could never change. If they couldn't change, then he wouldn't have to feel guilty about killing them. But if people didn't change after all, then Hiccup couldn't tell her he had changed. If you think about it like that, Astrid had been right the entire time… Hiccup was still the good person she'd been telling him he always was.

Hiccup leans himself against Toothless, as if he might collapse. His whole world is falling down around him, right out from under him, Astrid realizes. Was that really all it took for him to realize?

Seemingly unable to cope, Hiccup sinks to ground against Toothless. The dragon looks over at his friend, concern in his wide green eyes.

"My mother…" Hiccup whimpers, tucking his knees into himself. "My mother never came back here, not once. She didn't think anyone would ever be able to change. And when she found me, I know she got the idea that maybe she could come back her one day with the dragons. That maybe I wouldn't be the only one. And I knew she missed the island… I knew she missed my dad, but I discouraged her. I was so full of anger. Eventually she forgot about it, she wanted to go exploring. She wanted it to be the two of us, discovering everything dragons had to offer. And then… then…" He struggles to continue.

Astrid takes a tentative step towards him, her defenses quickly crumbling. "Hey, it's okay. You don't have to tell me."

"She told me I was brave, that I had strong heart and a strong soul. If she saw me now…" He looks up at Astrid, his eyes glistening slightly. "What have I done? I…" his hands begin shaking. "I killed people. I thought I had evolved, that I'd become stronger than everyone else. But my hatred blinded me. I'm no better than them… just destroying what I can't be bothered to understand."

This time she doesn't stop herself from crossing over to him. He doesn't fight her, allowing her to pull him into her side. He looks like he's really struggling to keep it together. "Everything you've done… everything you still do, it's not out of hate. It's out of love, the love you have for the dragons. The village turned its back on you, it's not surprising that you thought it was the other way around."

"All She ever wanted was to live in peace." He mumbles into her shoulder. "After Toothless became the alpha, I could have made it all stop. I just wanted to protect them… but now so many are dead, and they didn't have to… be…"

"Enough, Hiccup. I never thought you were a bad person, okay? I always knew, and you did too you just needed to be reminded."

"How can I, after everything I've done?"

"Because you did everything you could to avoid this, even if you think you didn't. You tried so hard to scare everyone off so you wouldn't have to fight them. You knew it would still hurt you to do this. Because you went out of your way to save every baby nadder. Because you didn't want to hurt our friends. Because…" She tries to level her gaze at him, but he won't meet her eyes. "Because you came back for me."

He sniffles. "I came back for you because I was selfish. I did it for myself."

"No, listen to me, you're doing the same thing now as you were before! You are not a bad person, or a selfish person, Hiccup, you are _good_. Believe in what I'm telling you, please. You're that same person I knew five years ago."

He finally looks up at her, shows the tear stains on his cheeks. "There's nothing we can do, you gotta believe me. It's too late for the island, the screaming death can't be stopped. I'm sorry."

"I can't accept that." Astrid whispers, feeling herself sag, but not wanting to show it. She had to make him believe there was still a way, they could always come up with a way.

Sniffling again, Hiccup runs the back of his hand across his face, mopping up the water. He takes a strong, deep breath before looking back at Astrid, the fog in his eyes cleared. He laughs wryly. "It doesn't matter whether you accept it or not. It's going to happen. That's why we have to get out of here."

"No." Hiccup shakes his head anyway. "We have to go back. We have to stop it."

"How? Don't you think I've ever thought about that, ever considered a way to kill the screaming death? Anything that gets in its way dies, human or dragon; it's a menace to everyone. But it has no weaknesses, it's not supposed to."

Astrid falls silent again, not sure what to suggest. "Then we have to go back and evacuate the village. We have to warn them."

"Do you think they'll listen? They wouldn't leave when I told them I'd destroy the village. They're not going to leave over one dragon… even if it's the deadliest species ever."

"There… there has to be something we can do."

"Astrid…" He sighs heavily. "I've tried everything. This isn't the first time the screaming death has wandered back into the archipelago, and every time I've had to distract it. It's too smart, now. And its mother has just been killed, it's not going to rest until it gets its revenge."

Sighing, Astrid leans into Hiccup as much as he was leaning into her. "They need our help more than ever, though."

He doesn't comment. "It's a death sentence, don't you understand?"

leans a hand on the small space between them, shrugging a shoulder forward. Astrid's hand falls to her sides. His hair is ruffled by the waves of coursing wind, the corner of his mouth turned up in a spiritless smile. Where the joy and sparkle of adventure should be in his eyes, there's nothing but aimless sorrow.

He doesn't know what to do, what to feel, she realizes. Doesn't know if he's even allowed for to ask for her to take her back, if he's allowed to want to stand up for the island. But when your moral code of the past few years suddenly disappears in a puff of smoke, she supposed that could happen to a man.

Before she can say anything, a great rush or warm wind presses against them from the direction of the village. Astrid looks back over her shoulder and sees a great pillar of fire spurt into the air from between the trees, followed by a morbid column of black smoke. Something big was going up in flames.

"The screaming death?" Astrid whispers, watching the giant fire. They weren't far from the village now, just close enough to see the destruction.

"Not it's style." Hiccup growls. "It doesn't use its fire much, let alone blow things up."

"But I thought you evacuated all the dragons from the island?"

Hiccup looks at Toothless, who nods. "We did, everyone should be gone."

"RAAAAAAAA!" A chorus of gruff voices echo from a distance. It sounds like a battle cry, but it can't be. There's nothing to fight…

Hiccup struggles out from between Astrid's grasp, climbing onto his feet. He looks up at the line of houses before him, at the cloud of billowing smoke. "The hunters."

Astrid scrambles to her feet next to him. "What do you mean, 'the hunters'?"

"They must have followed us." He mutters, hand going to his belt, where his sword should be, but coming up empty handed. His hands clench tightly. "The dragon eye is back at the mountain, it's not even here."

"Hunters…" Astrid murmurs, barely listening. The hunters… destructive, bloodthirsty killers. And now they were here, in the village. They were nothing like Hiccup, they had no good side to appeal to.

"Astrid, wait!" Hiccup yells in vain as she takes off towards the village. Astrid's not sure if he follows after her, all she can hear is the sound of her own blood pounding her ears.

She breaks through the treeline ferociously batting the brush aside. She doesn't stop running until she reaches the nearest building, pressing her back to the wood as she catches her breath. She peeks around the corner of the house, wanting to flush the hunters out but also knowing that it's smarter to find them herself. She had to be discreet if she didn't want to get spotted, she would have to—

"Look out!" Hiccup shoves her out of the way right as an arrow digs itself into the ground where Astrid was standing a moment ago.

Astrid stumbles out of the way. She follows the direction of the arrow and sees a man in an unfamiliar helmet standing on the roof of a house precariously. The roofs of the houses in Berk were severely slanted and narrow, and the man looked like he was a good gust of wind away from toppling over, although he didn't look bothered as he grinned down at them.

"Are you with Ryker?" Hiccup demands from the hunter. "It'd be in your best interest to tell me!"

The hunter ignores them, notching another arrow.

"Shut up and hold still!" The hunter yells, letting his next arrow fly at Hiccup.

With the sound of rapid flapping, Toothless leaps in the air, claws digging into the roof of the house before them. The dragon growls loudly, baring sharp teeth and snapping at the man. Suddenly terrified, the hunter screams and loses his balance, toppling backwards and falling to the ground, landing heavily on his back.

"Nice job, bud." Hiccup says as Toothless slides back down the side of the building and lands delicately on his feet.

The hunter looks dazed for a moment before his eyes focus in on Astrid as she stands above him. He scowls at her.

"How'd you find this island? Where are you getting in from?" She asks him.

The hunter says nothing, his face growing dangerously red. Astrid notices his hand twitch near his belt where there's a small dagger wrapped in its sheath.

Hiccup doesn't fail to notice, either, and promptly stomps on the man's wrist. Hard. The hunter howls, trying to pull his poor arm free but unable to under Hiccup's boot. Astrid looks over at him, glaring.

Hiccup shrugs. "Don't tell me he wouldn't have done the same to us." He doesn't sound sorry.

"But people will hear—" She doesn't see the point in arguing, and looks back at the hunter. "I'm not going to stop him from continuing if you don't start talking." She says to him.

As if to emphasize the point, Hiccup reaches over and grabs the dagger himself. "And we all know I wouldn't have a problem with doing that." If that wasn't enough, Toothless growls threateningly, skirting around Hiccup.

The man lifts his head, takes one good look at the dragon and blanches. "Okay, okay! Ryker's here, I just don't know where, I swear it!"

"And how'd you find us?"

"I…" The hunter hesitates. Hiccup twists his foot. "Ah, okay! I don't know, I'm just following orders! Nobody tells me that kind of stuff!" He squeaks.

"Hm." Hiccup grunts, pushing himself off the man's wrist. The hunter winces.

"How do we know he's telling the truth?" Astrid asks skeptically.

"We don't." And with one quick, swift motion Astrid kicks the man's head hard enough to nearly roll him over. His body goes limp.

"Hiccup!" Astrid watches him as he pulls a sword from the man's belt.

"What else were we gonna do, put him in prison?" He says sarcastically.

"Look, over there! I knew I heard someone yell!"

"And they've got Oslo!"

Astrid looks down the street at the sound of unfamiliar voices. A trio of hunters in dark helmets turn the corner and come running at the them. She's almost caught off guard as Hiccup tosses her the fallen hunter's bow. She catches it with a wobble.

"Get the sheath," He tells her, rising to stand at full weight, holding the stolen sword in front of him. Hissing, Toothless jumps between the two groups, head lowered towards the hunters.

For a moment, the men stop in their tracks.

"Random question, but—" Astrid kneels, quickly trying to unlatch the sheath from the limp man's back. "you ever heard of a dragon, black and yellow with three tails?"

"Of course, named him Sleuther."

"How long does the venom take to wear off?"

"Which one?" He says, eyes trained over Toothless' back, watching as the hunters regain their bearings. If they didn't already, some of them pull out their own bows and crossbows.

All at once, Toothless pounces at the approaching hunters. The men yell, falling back and shooting their arrows in the air blindly. Hiccup follows after his dragon, twisting his wrist enough to spin his sword before bringing it down on one of the hunters. The man raises his cross bow in defense, and it gets smashed to pieces.

"Which—the paralysis one." Astrid tries to work her fingers into the clasp, but the buckle is stuck. (This particular hunter really did stand to lose a few pounds, how did he squeeze this sheath over his body, it was on the loosest notch!). She glances upwards and catches sight of Toothless expand his wings, swinging them forward and sending another hunter flying.

"A—" Hiccup spinning around the hunter's sword, nearly caught between the beefy man's arms before driving the hilt of his sword in the man's gut. "—ugh, a day or so; it's potent stuff. Why?"

"Do you think you'll be able to fix Toothless' tail?"

"There's no time. But all the dragons should be long gone by now, Toothless made sure. There shouldn't be anything for a thousand-mile radius."

The third, and last hunter stays father back, weapon raised by clearly afraid to get close. Toothless hisses again.

"Aw, man, is that Oslo over there?"

"Thor almighty, I knew we shouldn't have let that idiot go off on his own!"

From down the other end of the street, at least half a dozen hunters spot them and begin running their way. The other hunter looks incredibly relieved.

Giving up on getting the sheath loose, Astrid pulls an arrow free, spinning in the direction of the new group while still on one knee. Hiccup keeps his sword raised in the other direction. She swears as the men jump out of the way of her shot.

"We can't do this all day." Astrid says. "Our dragons are out for the count, and I still plan on standing up to the screaming death."

"You're kidding me, right?"

A plasma blast whizzes by Astrid's head, singing the ground at the feet of the other group of hunters, making them scatter. Hiccup spins around when he senses the lone hunter trying to sneak up on him, his sword swinging down to dig into the wooden end of the hunters' crossbow.

Astrid watches out of the corner of her eye as the hunter tries to fire his weapon anyway, the arrow smacking against Hiccup's sword and making the both of them recoil and stagger backwards.

Astrid snatches another arrow from the downed hunter's sheath, loading and trying her best to get a clean shot on one of the advancing men. "We're too slow-going at this rate." She grits, trying to line up her shot. "I don't think the three of us will be able to stop Ryker like this."

The lone hunter tries to punch Hiccup, who ducks out of the way. The man falls over with the momentum on his swing, but still tries to grab at Hiccup's legs. Hiccup jumps out of the way, annoyance written all over his face. He kicks the man's stomach with threats to stay down.

"Okay, fine." He relents. He looks at Toothless, who seems to understand his cue and raises his head expectantly. "Do your thing, bud. If there's anyone left in the area, let them know we need their help."

Like that time all those weeks ago, Toothless raises his head to sky and roars vibrantly, the loud noise bouncing around the village and into the open sky.

"And we were already getting a lot of attention for having knocked out _Oslo _here…" Hiccup grumbles. He kicks at his sword, launching it into the air and snatching it up with one hand.

Astrid loads up another arrow, keeping it trained at the hunters as they dance back and forth as Toothless fires plasma blast after plasma blast in their direction. She's never been that great with a bow, even though her aim was next to none. In theory, she should be an excellent shot, but—

She swears the name of Loki as she misses again. The hunters snigger and continue to slowly make their way to her.

Maybe realizing that Astrid wasn't going be much of a help, Toothless' shot hits a man in the chest, sending him down. The dragon grunts in satisfaction.

"There, you see it?!" Another unfamiliar voice.

"Gods, it's the dragon master!"

Like Hiccup had predicted, Toothless' call for help had also attracted more than a few undesirables. Another crowd of hunters arrive from a third direction, filtering into the street from between the ruined buildings. At this rate, Hiccup, Astrid and Toothless would be boxed in.

Toothless' attention shifts, the dragon spinning to face the newcomers. He pounces at them, waving his tail wildly to whack hunters left and right. Many of them fall over, but a few more resilient ones don't fear him, and leap on the dragon. A hunter sinks his knife into Toothless back, and the dragon screams and begins to buck.

"Toothless!" Hiccup growls, distracted by the sound of his injured dragon. The other hunter takes advantage of the moment, knocking Hiccup along the side of his head with the broken end of his crossbow.

"Dammit!" Without Toothless' offense, Astrid has a bow and arrow against two unencumbered hunters. They run straight at her, but Astrid has no choice but to twist on the spot, still on one knee, and nail her arrow into the chest of the hunter who'd hit Hiccup.

The man gurgles something, his hands flying to his chest and the foreign object stuck in it, before stumbling backwards and teetering over.

Astrid locks in another arrow, praising Odin for the lucky shot, before burying another arrow into the man about to jump on her with his sword. The other one moves faster than Astrid can grab another arrow, and swipes at her in a long horizontal arc.

Astrid fall backwards onto her elbows, very nearly missing the swing of the blade and the loss of her head. While the hunter regains his balance, Astrid pushes a foot off the ground, using her other foot kicking the man in the face.

"Oof!" The hunter grunts but doesn't fall. Astrid's prepared to kick again when another person rams into him.

For a second, she thinks it might be Hiccup somehow. But a second later, Stoick comes back and offers Astrid a hand. Astrid gratefully accepts, and is pulled back onto her feet.

"Where've you been?" Astrid asks wearily. She hadn't seen him since he'd taken off to chase after Hiccup. Of course, that was before the hunter invasion and a whole bunch of other unexpected obstacles presented themselves.

"The north wall," Stoick says. "The dragons destroyed the pier, but the attackers are climbing the rocks into the village." When he sees Astrid's reaction, he almost smiles. "Don't worry, we took care of it."

Spitelout, standing faithfully behind the chief, nods in agreement. And behind him, Astrid's heart soars as she sees a lineup of other armed Vikings. Stoick must have rounded up the other capable fighters. Maybe they weren't as doomed as she thought they were.

"Waaaah!" A hunter goes flying overhead as Toothless knocks him off his back. The three of them watch the man sail through the air before looking back at Toothless. The dragon huffs indignantly.

"Stoick," Astrid wants to try and block his path, suddenly very aware of the dragon master and his dragon standing right on the street. But she's not tall or wide enough to stop him. "Hiccup's on our side, he's going to help us fight the hunters. And he's going to help me stop the— "

But Stoick pushes past her. Spitelout and the others don't look like allies anymore, and it scares her. They were still here for Hiccup. It was still about Hiccup, even now.


End file.
